Veratrum californicum

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Veratrum californicum
Veratrum californicum habitus1.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family: Melanthiaceae
Genus: Veratrum
Species:
V. californicum
Binomial name
Veratrum californicum
Varieties [2]
  • V. californicum var. californicum
  • V. californicum var. caudatum

Veratrum californicum (California corn lily, white or California false hellebore) is an extremely poisonous plant [3] native to western North America, including the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, as far north as Washington and as far south as Durango; depending on latitude, it grows from near sea level to as high as 11,000 feet. [4] [5] It grows 1 to 2 meters tall, with an erect, unbranched, heavily leafy stem resembling a cornstalk. [6] It prefers quite moist soil, and can cover large areas in dense stands near streams or in wet meadows. Many inch-wide flowers cluster along the often-branched top of the stout stem; they have 6 white tepals, a green center, 6 stamens, and a 3-branched pistil (see image below). The buds are tight green spheres. The heavily veined, bright green leaves can be more than a foot long. [5]

Contents

Veratrum californicum displays mast seeding; populations bloom and seed little in most years, but in occasional years bloom and seed heavily in synchrony. [7] The species usually blooms during midsummer from July to August. [8]

Varieties [4]
  1. Veratrum californicum var. californicum – from Washington to Durango
  2. Veratrum californicum var. caudatum(A.Heller) C.L.Hitchc. – Idaho, Washington, Oregon, N California

Teratogenic effects

It is a source of jervine, muldamine and cyclopamine, teratogens which can cause prolonged gestation associated with birth defects [9] such as holoprosencephaly and cyclopia in animals such as sheep, [3] horses, and other mammals that graze upon it. These substances inhibit the hedgehog signaling pathway. [10]

References

  1. ↑ NatureServe (28 February 2025). "Veratrum californicum". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 21 March 2025.
  2. ↑ "Veratrum californicum Durand". Plants of the World Online . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved 21 March 2025.
  3. 1 2 Whitney, Stephen (1985). Western Forests (The Audubon Society Nature Guides). New York: Knopf. p.  551. ISBN   0-394-73127-1.
  4. 1 2 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  5. 1 2 Blackwell, Laird R. (1998). Wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada and the Central Valley. Lone Pine Publishing. ISBN   1-55105-226-1.
  6. ↑ Niehaus, Theodore F.; Ripper, Charles L.; Savage, Virginia (1984). A Field Guide to Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers . Houghton Mifflin Company. pp.  10–11. ISBN   0-395-36640-2.
  7. ↑ Inouye, David W.; Wielgolaski, Frans E. (2003). "High Altitude Climates". In Schwarz, Mark D. (ed.). Phenology: An Integrative Environmental Science. Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 195–214. ISBN   1-4020-1580-1 . Retrieved 2011-12-07.
  8. ↑ Southwest, The American. "California Corn Lily, Veratrum Californicum". www.americansouthwest.net. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  9. ↑ Van Kampen & Ellis. "Prolonged Gestation in Ewes Ingesting Veratrum californicum: Morphological Changes and Steroid Biosynthesis in the Endocrine Organs of Cyclopic Lambs".
  10. ↑ Chen, J; Taipale, J; Cooper, M. (2002). "Inhibition of Hedgehog Signaling by direct binding of Cyclopamine to Smoothened". Genes Dev. 16 (21): 2743–2748. doi:10.1101/gad.1025302. PMC   187469 . PMID   12414725.


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