One of the deadliest plants in the Northwest is also one of the most aptly named: death camas.
If you have an older plant identification book, and are a stickler for the correct genus, it’s time to enter the reassigned genus (once Zigadenus). Elegant camas (aka mountain death camas) is now Anticlea elegans; foothill death camas is now Toxicoscordion paniculatum; and meadow death camas is now Toxicoscordion venenosum.
But enough with the Latin.
If you like to practice your survival skills or just enjoy nibbling a wild something that happens to be a camas, be sure that you can differentiate between a death camas and the nontoxic blue camas. If it’s a camas that’s not flowering, do not eat an oval bulb covered with blackish scales.
American Indians originally learned the hard way that the death camas and blue camas are often intermixed. It’s easy enough to tell the difference when they’re in bloom (deadly white flowers vs. pretty blue flowers), near impossible before the flowers or after the flowers have withered.
Foothill death camas blooms about the same time as the benign common, or blue, camas, thus the confusion. Meadow camas’ Latin name means “very poisonous,” and its flower is particularly poisonous.
Certain alkaloids are responsible for this perennial herb being poisonous.
According to health researchers, death camas is second only to hemlock in the poison category in the Northwest, leading to symptoms including irregular heartbeat, abdominal pain, vomiting, decreasing blood pressure, slowing respirations and possibly death.
Death camas has caused more deaths than any other Northwest plant, according to health departments’ records.
Even honey bees can be poisoned by the death camas’ pollen and nectar. On the flip side, larvae of the Eupithecia moth feed only on death camas, using the toxins to protect against predators. And camas is deer-resistant.
Once tribes established what caused fatalities, they weeded the death camas from the fields of blue camas when both were in bloom.
Thanks to instructions from the tribes, Lewis and Clark’s expedition was able to use the correct camas for food. The locals called it quamash, camosh, camas or other variations, depending upon the tribe.
From quamash comes the English camas and its genus name, Camassia.
Blue camas bulbs were considered a delicacy. A long cooking time could turn complex carbohydrates into sugar fructose. The bulb could be pit cooked, fried or boiled, then dried and ground into flour.
Camas is very adaptable, fond of good drainage but can grow in wet lowlands, and can flourish near treelines, on rocky areas and on prairies. It’s often found near Garry oaks.
The Nature Conservancy owns the 26-acre Camassia Natural Area on a basalt bluff about 12 miles south of Portland. The oak and madrone preserve is named for the common (blue) camas, but more than 300 plant species are protected.
For more information, contact the Nature Conservancy of Oregon, 503-802-8100, or search for camas at www.nature.org/.
Wolf plan progress: After 19 public meetings, three surveys and a comment period that drew almost 65,000 responses, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has revised a draft plan for wolf recovery and management.
The goal is to have 15 successful wolf breeding pairs in the state. View the plan at wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf.
On the shelf: “Around One Log” and “Over in Australia” (Dawn, $9), two children’s books, are more examples of this company’s commitment to nature and storytelling through rhyme, as well as adding activities for readers.
Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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