The corn lily (Veratrum californicum, Family: Liliaceae) is sometimes called False Skunk Cabbage because it stinks when it withers from drought, but it isn't related to the Skunk Cabbage of the East. It is also more often called False Hellebore because it resembles the European Hellebore - which it also isn't. It is common in forested areas in the Northwest and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States. It grows in moist, open meadows and hillsides at elevations of 1500 to 4000 meters, emerging in the spring as soon as the snow melts. Depending on how much moisture it gets, it can grow into a three-to-six foot tall plant, with a long flower spike of cream-colored flowers appearing in July and August. The flowers average 1/2" or less in diameter, with vivid, rich, deep green markings. Few of the plants flower in dry seasons.

All parts of the corn lily are highly toxic and potentially fatal, particularly the roots. The plant is poisonous from when it begins to grow until it is killed by freezing, but the toxicity seems to decrease as the plant matures. The poisonous substances are steroidal alkaloids, most notably cyclopamine. The presence of cyclopamine in the corn lily was first brought to light in 1950, when scientists were looking into complaints by Colorado farmers of the births of one-eyed lambs. The ewes were eating wild corn lilies during early pregnancy, where the cyclopamine interfered with the eye development pathways (chains of chemical signals) in the embryos.

More recently, researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland (lead author: Philip A. Beachy, Ph.D., molecular biology and genetics) have found that a cyclopamine compound derived from corn lilies interferes with the molecular pathways at work in abnormal mouse cells, shutting down runaway growth of the cells. The molecular pathway is also at work in some human cancers, including basal cell carcinoma (the most common form of skin cancer), brain tumors called medulloblastomas, and muscle tumors called rhabdomyosarcomas. So far, the compound has only been tested on a mouse cell line in the laboratory, and it could have side effects that limit its use. But the research is a start in developing a rational therapy for skin cancer that targets only cancer cells and spares healthy cells.