Zigadenus elegans Pursh

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Melanthiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Zigadenus elegans Pursh

• Description

  Species Description - Stems erect, 2–6 dm from tunicated bulbs; herbage glaucous especially when young; lvs mostly crowded toward the base, linear, 2–4 dm, up to 12 mm wide; infl 1–3 dm, paniculate (seldom merely racemose), its branches subtended by large, lance-ovate bracts, these usually suffused with purple and marcescent at anthesis; tep 7–12 mm, oblong-obovate, rounded-obtuse, adnate at base to the ovary-base, white or greenish-yellow, usually strongly suffused with purple or brown toward the base beneath, and with a dark obcordate gland just below the middle on the upper side; fr ovoid, 10–15 mm; seeds angular, 3 mm; 2n=32. Beaches and bogs and other wet, often calcareous places; Que. to N.Y., w. across n. U.S. and adj. Can. to the cordilleran region from Alas. to n. Mex.; disjunct in the s. Appalachian region (Va. to N.C.) and in the Ozarks (Mo. and Ark.). July, Aug. Our plants, as here described, mostly belong to the e. var. glaucus (Nutt.) Preece, called white camas. Along our w. border, in Minn. and Io. var. glaucus passes into the more western, mainly cordilleran var. elegans, with yellower fls, less consistently glaucous herbage, and often merely racemose infl. (Anticlea e.)