OregonFlora: Camassia quamash vs. Camassia angusta

	Camassia quamash	Camassia angusta
	common camas
Habit	Plants diurnal; 10–80 cm tall; bulbs solitary.
Leaves	3–5, lanceolate to linear, 25–70 cm × 5–15 mm.
Inflorescences	nodes 3–45, with 2–5 or more flowers open at once, sterile bracts 0–2; most longer than pedicels, tan to blue; pedicel-stem angle broad or less often narrow.
Flowers	corollas bilateral, rarely radial; tepals 10–35 × 3–5 mm, pale blue to deep blue-violet, initially withering individually or connivently but separating in fruit and persisting on stem; veins 3–9.
Fruits	oriented away from or appressed to stem; ovoid-oblong, 15–25 mm.
Seeds	5–10 per locule.

	Camassia quamash	Camassia angusta
Distribution	[WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]	[WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Discussion	Western North America. 8 subspecies; 6 subspecies treated in Flora. Camassia quamash includes a confusing array of morphologically and geographically diverse subspecies. Differentiating them remains challenging, yet genetic data have revealed a detectable molecular signature between groups that grow “east” (breviflora, quamash, utahensis) and “west” of the Cascades (intermedia, maxima, walpolei). Taxa within these groups are still unresolved (Fishbein et al. 2010).
Source	Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 156 Susan Kephart
Sibling taxa	C. cusickii, C. howellii, C. leichtlinii	C. cusickii, C. howellii, C. leichtlinii, C. quamash
Subordinate taxa	C. quamash ssp. breviflora, C. quamash ssp. intermedia, C. quamash ssp. maxima, C. quamash ssp. quamash, C. quamash ssp. utahensis, C. quamash ssp. walpolei
Web links	Local floras: BC, OR, WA Local Web sites: Flora NW, PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	Local Web sites: Flora NW, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Camassia angusta

common camas

Habit

Plants diurnal; 10–80 cm tall; bulbs solitary.

Leaves

3–5, lanceolate to linear, 25–70 cm × 5–15 mm.

Inflorescences

nodes 3–45, with 2–5 or more flowers open at once, sterile bracts 0–2; most longer than pedicels, tan to blue;

pedicel-stem angle broad or less often narrow.

Flowers

corollas bilateral, rarely radial;

tepals 10–35 × 3–5 mm, pale blue to deep blue-violet, initially withering individually or connivently but separating in fruit and persisting on stem;

veins 3–9.

Fruits

oriented away from or appressed to stem; ovoid-oblong, 15–25 mm.

Seeds

5–10 per locule.

Camassia angusta

Distribution

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

Discussion

Western North America. 8 subspecies; 6 subspecies treated in Flora.

Camassia quamash includes a confusing array of morphologically and geographically diverse subspecies. Differentiating them remains challenging, yet genetic data have revealed a detectable molecular signature between groups that grow “east” (breviflora, quamash, utahensis) and “west” of the Cascades (intermedia, maxima, walpolei). Taxa within these groups are still unresolved (Fishbein et al. 2010).

Source

Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 156
Susan Kephart

Sibling taxa

C. cusickii, C. howellii, C. leichtlinii

C. cusickii, C. howellii, C. leichtlinii, C. quamash

Subordinate taxa