''Toxicoscordion brevibracteatum'' (syn. ''Zigadenus brevibracteatus'') is a species of flowering plant known by the common name desert deathcamas. It is native to

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...

, and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where it grows in sandy desert habitat among

creosote Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. Some creosote types were ...

and

Joshua trees ''Yucca brevifolia'' is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to the ar ...

. ''Toxicoscordion brevibracteatum'' is a perennial wildflower growing from a brown or black

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

up to 4 centimeters long. The stem grows up to 50 or 60 centimeters long. The leaves are linear in shape, measuring up to 30 centimeters long by one wide. Most of the leaves are at the base of the stem and there may be a few reduced leaves above. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is an open

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

of flowers at the tips of branches. The flowers are male or bisexual, with six cream-colored

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s. The fruit is a capsule 1 or 2 centimeters long.Flora of North America
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References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Toxicoscordion brevibracteatum'' (Desert death camas) Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Toxicoscordion brevibracteatum''UC Photos gallery — ''Toxicoscordion brevibracteatum''
brevibracteatum Flora of California Flora of Baja California Flora of Sonora Flora of the California desert regions Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Mojave Desert Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Plants described in 1908 {{Liliales-stub