OregonFlora: Camassia quamash vs. Camassia howellii

	Camassia quamash	Camassia howellii
	common camas	Howell's camas
Habit	Plants diurnal; 10–80 cm tall; bulbs solitary.	Plants vespertine; 20–60 cm tall; bulbs solitary.
Leaves	3–5, lanceolate to linear, 25–70 cm × 5–15 mm.	4–9(10), lanceolate, 10–70 cm × 3–12 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.	nodes 5–80, with up to 30 flowers open at once, sterile bracts 0–3; most equal or shorter than pedicels, tan to pale green; pedicels often form broad angle with stem; but may curve inward.
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.	corollas radially symmetric; tepals 10–20 × 3–5 mm, blue to blue-violet, withering connivently and twisting off top of fruit or deciduous from pedicels that remain on stem; veins 3(5).
Fruits	oriented away from or appressed to stem; ovoid-oblong, 15–25 mm.	globose, 5–10 × 5–9 mm; shiny when young but dulling with age.
Seeds	5–10 per locule.	2–5 per locule.

	Camassia quamash	Camassia howellii
Distribution	[WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county 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).	Open grassy or gravelly meadows, Jeffrey pine slopes, oakmadrone savanna, usually on serpentine soils. Flowering Apr–Jun. 200–700 m. Sisk. CA. Native. The initially globose, shiny fruits and vespertine flowering found in C. howellii are unusual. In most camas species, new flowers open late afternoon to early evening and remain open, but flowers of Howell’s camas have a short floral life span (tepals close between dusk and dawn or shortly thereafter without reopening; Howell 1903, Kephart et al. unpublished). This feature may link Camassia to vespertine species within Chlorogalum (Jernstedt 2002). The small-flowered C. howellii sometimes grows in mesic habitats near great camas (C. leichtlinii), which flowers earlier in wetter, rocky seeps. Despite these differences, putative hybrids occur, as supported by morphological and phylogenetic evidence (Fishbein et al. 2010).
Source	Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 156 Susan Kephart	Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 155 Susan Kephart
Sibling taxa	C. cusickii, C. howellii, C. leichtlinii	C. cusickii, 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 floras: OR 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 howellii

common camas

Howell's camas

Habit

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

Plants vespertine; 20–60 cm tall; bulbs solitary.

Leaves

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

4–9(10), lanceolate, 10–70 cm × 3–12 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.

nodes 5–80, with up to 30 flowers open at once, sterile bracts 0–3; most equal or shorter than pedicels, tan to pale green;

pedicels often form broad angle with stem; but may curve inward.

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.

corollas radially symmetric;

tepals 10–20 × 3–5 mm, blue to blue-violet, withering connivently and twisting off top of fruit or deciduous from pedicels that remain on stem;

veins 3(5).

Fruits

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

globose, 5–10 × 5–9 mm; shiny when young but dulling with age.

Seeds

5–10 per locule.

2–5 per locule.

Camassia howellii

Distribution

[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).

Open grassy or gravelly meadows, Jeffrey pine slopes, oakmadrone savanna, usually on serpentine soils. Flowering Apr–Jun. 200–700 m. Sisk. CA. Native.

The initially globose, shiny fruits and vespertine flowering found in C. howellii are unusual. In most camas species, new flowers open late afternoon to early evening and remain open, but flowers of Howell’s camas have a short floral life span (tepals close between dusk and dawn or shortly thereafter without reopening; Howell 1903, Kephart et al. unpublished). This feature may link Camassia to vespertine species within Chlorogalum (Jernstedt 2002). The small-flowered C. howellii sometimes grows in mesic habitats near great camas (C. leichtlinii), which flowers earlier in wetter, rocky seeps. Despite these differences, putative hybrids occur, as supported by morphological and phylogenetic evidence (Fishbein et al. 2010).

Source

Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 156
Susan Kephart

Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 155
Susan Kephart

Sibling taxa

C. cusickii, C. howellii, C. leichtlinii

C. cusickii, C. leichtlinii, C. quamash

Subordinate taxa