''Toxicoscordion fontanum,'', common name small-flower death camas, is a rare plant species known only from serpentine marshes in

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 ...

. It is found primarily in the

Coast Ranges The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although the ...

from

Mendocino County Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish language, Spanish for "of Antonio de Mendoza, Mendoza) is a County (United States), county located on the North Coast (California), North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United Sta ...

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Mission ...

, with an additional report of an isolated population in the

Sierra Nevada foothills :''See Sierra Nevada for general information about the mountain range in the United States.'' The ecology of the Sierra Nevada, located in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, is diverse and complex: the plants and animals are a significant ...

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

east of

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...

. ''Toxicoscordion fontanum'' is a bulb-forming perennial herb. Bulbs are egg-shaped, up to 40 mm (1.6 inches) long, not clumped together. Inflorescences are

paniculate 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 ...

, sometimes with as many as 100 flowers.

Tepals 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 ...

are cream-colored, up to 12 mm (0.5 inches) long; filaments shorter than the

tepals 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 ...

Toxicity

As with many other species formerly included in ''Zigadenus'', this species is highly toxic and potentially lethal to humans and to livestock. Some people have eaten it confusing it with wild onion, ''Allium'' spp. ''Zigadenus'' and ''Toxicoscordion'' do not, however, have the characteristic onion scent associated with ''Allium'' spp.

Ecology

It is not unusual to find species that specialize in growing on serpentine soil. There are scattered pocket of this soil in various parts of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, and elsewhere.

Metamorphic Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causin ...

rocks such as

serpentinite Serpentinite is a rock composed predominantly of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. Serpentinite has been called ''serpentine'' or ''ser ...

are formed well below the earth's surface then carried upward by geologic activity. Soils made from such rocks tend to be low in nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus but high in nickel and chromium. Such conditions are toxic to most plants, but some species such as ''T. fontanum'' have evolved with adaptations allowing them to tolerate

serpentine soils Serpentine soil is an uncommon soil type produced by weathered ultramafic rock such as peridotite and its metamorphic derivatives such as serpentinite. More precisely, serpentine soil contains minerals of the serpentine subgroup, especially anti ...

.Alexander, E. B.; Coleman, R. G.; Keeler-Wolf, T.; Harrison, S. (2007). Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America: Geology, Soils, and Vegetation. New York: Oxford University Press. .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15544618 fontanum Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Plants described in 1937 Flora without expected TNC conservation status