Mountain Death Camas / Zigadenus elegans

"Mountain Death Camas is also sometimes called Poison Camas, Poison Sego, Alakali Grass, White Camas, Wand Lily, and Death Camas. These common names elude to the poisonous compounds found in this lily.

The scientific name elegans means elegant. It is a beautiful, flowing plant even though it its highly poisonous. The genus contains plants with alkaloids toxic to both man and livestock. Sheep are frequently affected, since they seem to eat the plants more readily than other animals do. Hogs are said to be immune to the poison. Poisoning usually occurs in early spring because the death camases appear before most other range plants and their succulent leaves are available.

Make sure not to confuse this plant with the true Camas, which formed a stable food for Indians of the Northwest. The flowers are quite different, but Indians did occasionally mistake bulbs of the two, since both plants grow together in meadows. It is difficult to distinguish death camases from onions, sego lilies, fritillaries, and wild hyacinths when the edible plants are only a few inches high. However, a combination of leaf characters and a cross section of the bulbs or corms is diagnostic at any stage in the development of the plants." From Untamed Science.

www.untamedscience.com/biodiversity/mountain-death-camas/

This photo was taken four days ago, on 28 June 2016, when I went with friends, Dorothy and Stephen, to Bow Valley Provincial Park They are leading a day trip out there soon and wanted to do a dry run and very kindly invited me to go with them.

These mountains are the first ones you come to, when you drive westwards on Highway 1A from Calgary. They form the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Mt. Yamnuska is always a spectacular sight, and very popular with rock-climbers and hikers. I've never hiked up there - and am never likely to : ) The flat area at the foot of these mountains is Bow Valley Provincial Park, very popular with botanists and birders. It is less than an hour's drive west from Calgary.

Our main walk was following the Many Springs Trail, which is perhaps the most rewarding in the park. A great variety of plants can be found there. We saw a reasonably good variety of wildflowers, including Western Wood Lilies, Yellow Lady's-slippers, Sticky False Asphodel, Harebells, Fleabane, and lots of Gaillardia, to name just a few. Though the end of June is usually the best time to go for the wildflowers, you still never know what you will find. We barely had a spring this year, it was so hot and so dry, more like summer.

Birds were much harder to find, even though we heard them. There were quite a few small birds flitting about, but our best sightings were of a brightly coloured male Yellow Warbler and some kind of flycatcher (Willow or Alder Flycatcher) near the boardwalk at Many Springs. Both were on the move constantly, though I did manage to get a few less-than-good photos. One of my Warbler shots made me smile when I saw it on my computer. The bird was perched, with a beak full of insects, right next to a large spider's web. Kind of robbing ones neighbour. I took three or four rapid shots of a Spotted Sandpiper and then we left the area, as she was making it clear that she had a nest or young ones somewhere.

On the way out of the park, we stopped at Middle Lake and walked down the path as far as the lake. We were horrified at how low the water level was - there was no sign of the beautiful reeds that used to really add something special to this view. We had seen the same low levels at Many Springs, too.

The weather forecast for this day mentioned the risk of thunderstorms, but we were so lucky. The sun shone all day and the sky was full of puffy clouds. Once our visit was over and we were ready to drive back to Calgary, a bit of rain did arrive.

Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for such an enjoyable day! It was a real treat to go to the mountains, as I so rarely go.

www.albertaparks.ca/bow-valley-pp/

The link below is a map showing the turn off to the park and the layout of the lake areas. The roads at the junction with highway 1A are quite confusing!

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