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Mountain Death Camas

Anticlea elegans

Also called Glaucous Death Camas, White Camas, Alkali Grass, Smooth Camas, Mountain Deathcamas

Mountain Death Camas
Photo: Adam Humphreys, CC BY-SA 3.0
Family
Melanthiaceae (Melanthi family)
Grows as
Bulb
Native range
Subarctic America to Mexico (Chihuahua)
Climate
temperate

About

Anticlea elegans, commonly known as mountain deathcamas, elegant camas, or glaucous death-camas, is a trillium-relative in the flowering plant family Melanthiaceae. Three distinct subspecies are included Anticlea elegans subsp. elegans, the type subspecies, plus Anticlea elegans subsp. glauca and Anticlea elegans subsp. vaginata. Anticlea elegans subsp. vaginata is likely a result of a vicariance event at the end of the Pleistocene and the populations are genetically drifting apart. Glacial refugia in at least five US states have formerly hosted populations of Anticlea elegans subsp. glauca, though two are now extirpated. The species is native to most of North America, being absent from California and the Baja California peninsula, the deep southeastern United States, and the far north of Canada.

Where it grows

As a whole, Anticlea elegans is widely distributed through western North America, but absent from California and the southern southeast United States. In Canada its range extends from Quebec and New Brunswick west to the Northwest and Yukon Territories and into Alaska. The species extends along the Rocky Mountains of western North America south through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Following the mountainous uplands, populations are found into the central areas of Mexico.

Other Anticlea plants

Bronze Bells · Anticlea volcanica · Death Camas

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Anticlea elegans by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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