Camassia quamash

camas

Liliaceae

The Basics

USFS Plant Database

Flora of North America

Common camas is a native perennial forb. Its peduncle is from 20-50 cm in height and supports a terminal raceme. The peduncle and basal leaves attach to a bulb that is up to 6 cm across. Its roots are fibrous.

The currently accepted scientific name of common camas is Camassia quamash (Pursh) Greene (Liliaceae).

Information about habitat and associated species.

In the Intermountain region and the northern Rocky Mountains, common camas is usually found in mountain grassland and prairie communities. West of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada crest, it occurs in both forest and grassland types...Common camas grows on sites that are moist to wet in spring but dry by late spring or summer. It is commonly found near vernal pools, springs, and intermittent streams...Common camas is shade intolerant. In forested areas, it is found on open sites created by disturbance. In grasslands and meadows, it is most prevalent in initial and early seral communities but also occurs in later seres.

Common camas bulbs were eaten by western Indians, trappers, and early settlers. Many western Indian tribes also used the bulbs as a trade item...Livestock, elk, moose, and caribou graze common camas. Pigs consume the bulbs. (Plant Database)

Identification

Bulbs seldom clustered, globose, 1–5 cm diam. Leaves usually fewer than 10, 1–6 dm × 4–20 mm. Inflorescences 20–80 cm; sterile bracts absent, bracts subtending flowers usually equaling or exceeding pedicel. Flowers usually zygomorphic, sometimes actinomorphic; tepals withering separately or connivent over capsules after anthesis, long-persistent on fruiting racemes, blue or bluish violet, each 3–9-veined, 12–35 × 1.5–8 mm; anthers usually yellow, sometimes bluish violet, violet, or brown, 2.5–7 mm; fruiting pedicel mostly incurving-erect, occasionally spreading-erect, 5–70 mm. Capsules not deciduous, pale green to pale brown, ovoid, 6–19 mm. Seeds 5–10 per locule. 2n = 30. (Flora of North America)

Threats

Fire presumably top-kills common camas...Soil insulates the meristematic tissue in common camas bulbs from damage by fire.

Common camas is shade intolerant [10]. In forested areas, it is found on open sites created by disturbance. In grasslands and meadows, it is most prevalent in initial and early seral communities but also occurs in later seres. (Plant Database)

Reproduction

Common camas reproduces from seed and bulb offsets. Clones flower at age 2 or 3 years...The fruit is a three-celled capsule with 5 to 10 seeds per cell.

Common camas flowers from May to July, depending upon elevation and snow cover. Leaves die and seeds are dispersed from late May to August. (Plant Database)

Species Distribution

Common camas is distributed from southern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta east to Montana and south to California, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. An introduced population occurs near Haines, Alaska. (Plant Database)

Citation

USDA Plant Database http://plants.usda.gov/characteristics.html USDA, NRCS. 2016. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 4 February 2016). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC 27401-4901 USA.

Flora of North America http://www.efloras.org/flora_page.aspx?flora_id=1 Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 19+ vols. New York and Oxford.

Silvics of North America Burns, R.M., and B.H. Honkala. 1990. Silvics of North America (Volume 1: Conifers, Volume 2: Hardwoods). USDA Forest Service Agricultural Handbook 654.

Intermountain Herbarium http://intermountainbiota.org/portal/collections/harvestparams.php Consortium of Intermountain Herbaria. 2016. http//:intermountainbiota.org/portal/index.php. Accessed on February 04.

Burke Museum Plant Image Collection The plant image collection at the Burke Museum, University of Washington.

Jepson Manual http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/ The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California. B.G. Baldwin, D.H. Goldman, D.J. Keil, R. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken [editors]. 2012. 2nd edition, thoroughly revised and expanded. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA., hardcover; 1600 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0520253124.

USGS Plant Species Range Maps http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/little/ Critchfield, W.B., and Little, E.L., Jr., 1966, Geographic distribution of the pines of the world: U.S. Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication 991, p. 1-97. Little, E.L., Jr., 1971-1978, Atlas of United States trees, volume 1,3,13,17, conifers and important hardwoods: U.S. Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publications.

Photo from Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History