[Illustration: NUTTALL’S DEATH CAMASS WILD HYACINTH]
Aquatic plants; leaves alternate, often basal; sepals 3, petal-like; petals 3, sepals and petals partly united; ovary 3-celled.
Nuttall’s Death Camass (_Toxicoscordion nuttallii_) is a common prairie bunch-flower from Texas to Tennessee and Kansas. The leaves, which are mainly basal, long, narrow, and curved, and the stout stems 1-2 feet high arise from a large black-coated bulb which is poisonous. Many cream-colored flowers are borne in a round-topped cluster. The 3 sepals and 3 petals are alike, and the 6 stamens have large yellow anthers. The 3-beaked capsules have numerous seeds. The flowers bloom in April and May. The poisonous bulb is responsible for the name, which is derived from the Greek meaning “poison-onion.”
Wild Hyacinth (_Quamasia hyacinthina_) is also called indigo-squill or meadow hyacinth. Growing from a deep-rooted edible bulb, a slender stalk 1-2 ft. high bears a spike-like cluster of hyacinth-blue flowers at the top. The flowers are about ½ inch broad and have a most delightful fragrance. It is widespread from Pennsylvania to Texas, common in Texas along railroads in April.
[Illustration: PRAIRIE ONION CROW POISON]
Prairie Onion (_Allium nuttallii_) has short flower stalks 4-6 inches high growing from a very small bulb which has a brown, finely-woven outer coat. The flowers are nearly half an inch broad and vary from pale pink to a deep rose. _Allium_ is the Latin for “garlic,” and both the cultivated garlic and onion are members of this group. There are nearly twenty different wild onions in the state, many of which make lovely garden plants. _Allium mutabile_, a taller onion with very numerous white flowers, blooms in May. The prairie onion is the same as Heller’s onion (_Allium helleri_) and blooms in April.
Crow Poison. False Garlic (_Nothoscordum bivalve_) is one of the first flowers to appear in the spring on lawns, meadows, and roadsides throughout the Southern States and may bloom again in the autumn. It looks very much like the onions, but has fewer, larger flowers on long stalks and does not have the onion odor. It grows from an onion-like bulb. The name is from the Greek meaning “false garlic.”