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Camassia quamash

common camas

common camas

Habit Plants diurnal; 10–80 cm tall; bulbs solitary. Plants 30–80 cm tall.
Leaves

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

20–55 cm × 6–20 mm, not glaucous but uniformly green on both sides.

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 distinctly bilateral;

tepals pale blue to blue-violet, 20–35 × 3–7 mm, withering separately;

veins 5–7(9);

anthers usually bright yellow.

Fruits

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

erect on pedicels and positioned close to stem, 10–15 mm.

Seeds

5–10 per locule.

6–10 per locule.

Camassia quamash

Camassia quamash ssp. intermedia

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).

Wet meadows, swales, and ash-dominated woodlands. Flowering Apr–May. 100–500 m. Sisk, Casc, WV. Native.

The evident bilateral symmetry, larger flowers, and 5–7-veined tepals clearly distinguish Camassia quamash ssp. intermedia from C. q. ssp. walpolei. Camassia quamash ssp. intermedia and ssp. maxima differ reliably only in adaxial leaf surface coating (C. q. ssp. maxima is glaucous, while C. q. ssp. intermedia is not). Many plants of C. q. ssp. maxima also bear fruits on pedicels that spread away from the raceme, but the capsules can also mature closely appressed to the stem as in C. q. ssp. intermedia. Ongoing morphological and molecular studies are needed to resolve these two taxa.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 156
Susan Kephart
Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 156
Susan Kephart
Sibling taxa
C. cusickii, C. howellii, C. leichtlinii
C. quamash ssp. breviflora, C. quamash ssp. intermedia, C. quamash ssp. maxima, C. quamash ssp. quamash, C. quamash ssp. utahensis, C. quamash ssp. walpolei
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
Synonyms Camassia quamash var. intermedia
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