Toxicoscordion fremontii

Fremont's death camas

Family: Melanthiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Fremont's death camas is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, central Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, central western, and southwestern regions in grassy or wooded slopes and outcrops at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from February to June, this plant produces white to cream-colored flowers in open panicles or racemes 5 to 40 centimeters long. Growing with tall, glabrous stems 40 to 90 centimeters tall emerging from a nearly spheric black-coated bulb 20 to 35 millimeters in diameter, it has an elegant, upright structure. Its leaves are long and curved, measuring 20 to 50 centimeters in length and 8 to 30 millimeters wide, with scabrous-ciliate margins that add texture to the plant's appearance. The fruit develops as a cylindric capsule 10 to 35 millimeters long, characteristic of this distinctive death camas species.

Habitat: Grassy or wooded slopes, outcrops

Bloom period: Feb-Jun

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: NW, c SNF (just w of Chinese Camp, Tuolumne Co.), ScV, CW, SW

California counties: Santa Barbara, San Benito, Marin, Butte, Monterey, Tehama, Mendocino, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Colusa, Solano, Glenn, Alameda, Napa, Sonoma, Contra Costa, San Diego, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Merced, Orange, San Francisco, Lake, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Yolo, Shasta, El Dorado, Nevada, Alpine

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.