Veratrum tenuipetalum   (Corn Lily, False Hellebore)
Melanthiaceae (False Hellebore Family)

Linnaeus gave the plant its scientific genus name in 1753 and Elias Durand named the species Veratrum californicum in 1855 from a specimen collected by Pratten near Nevada City, California in 1854.  Amos Heller named the species Veratrum tenuipetalum in 1905.

"Veratrum" is Latin for "true black", referring to the black rhizomes.  "Tenu" is Latin for "thin" or "slender" and "petalum" is Greek for "a leaf" or "spread out flat" and refers to the spreading leaves of the Corn Lily.

Many botanists assign this plant to Liliaceae, not Melanthiaceae.