Camassia quamash |
Camassia quamash ssp. quamash |
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common camas |
common camas |
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Habit | Plants diurnal; 10–80 cm tall; bulbs solitary. | Plants 20–70 cm tall. |
Leaves | 3–5, lanceolate to linear, 25–70 cm × 5–15 mm. |
18–50 cm × 6–30 mm, glaucous adaxially. |
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. |
sterile bracts 0–1. |
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 bilateral; tepals pale blue to deep blue-violet, 10–35 × 5–8 mm, withering separately; veins 3(5); anthers blue-violet to brown. |
Fruits | oriented away from or appressed to stem; ovoid-oblong, 15–25 mm. |
erect on pedicels and positioned close to stem, 8–16 mm. |
Seeds | 5–10 per locule. |
5–10 per locule. |
Camassia quamash |
Camassia quamash ssp. quamash |
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Distribution | ||
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). |
Flowering Apr–Jul. 50–2200 m. BR, BW, Col, ECas. ID, WA; north to British Columbia, northeast to Alberta and MT. Native. In Oregon, C. q. ssp. quamash is present only east of the Cascades and is more abundant in Idaho and Montana. In the past, some authorities misapplied this name to plants of C. leichtlinii outside this range, leading to misidentification, particularly in California, and southern and western Oregon. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 156 Susan Kephart |
Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 157 Susan Kephart |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Camassia quamash var. quamash | |
Web links |
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