Zigandenus paniculatus
Panicled Death Camas

Family: Liliaceae (Lily family)

Photo taken at Leavenworth Ski Hill, openly wooded dry meadow

Flowers:

inflorescence in a panicle, 10 to 30 cm; flowers often polygamous, those of the main axis perfect and those of the lower manicle branches often functionally staminate; outer tepals cream to whitish, scarcely clawed, broadly ovate-triangular, 3 to 5 mm, acute to acuminate; inner tepals 3.5 to 6 mm; stamens 1 to 2 mm less than the tepals

Leaves:

linear, 20 to 50 cm long by 6 to 16 mm wide, mostly basal, glabrous or scabrous-ciliate, reduced upwards

Plant:

perennial; 20 to 70 cm tall; poisonous to livestock and humans. Poultice of mashed bulb applied for rheumatism by the Paiute, Northern Paiute, Shoshoni, and Washo.

Habitat:

sagebrush desert to ponderosa or lodgepole forest

Distribution of species:

eastern Cascades, Chelan County to Sierran California, east to central Washington and northeast Oregon, and through central and southern Idaho to southwest and central Montana, Wyoming, Utah, western Colorado, northern Arizona and northwest New Mexico

Distribution of genus:

more or less 15 species: North America and Asia