Burke: Camassia cusickii

	Camassia cusickii
	Cusick's camas
Habit	Perennial herb from elliptic, clustered, mucilaginous bulbs 3-5 cm thick x 6-8 cm long.
Leaves	Leaves are lance-linear, 30-50 cm long x 10-35 mm wide (but up to 50 mm wide) and typically number more than 10 per stem.
Inflorescence	Flowering stems are 40-50 cm long and topped by a crowded inflorescence 50-80 cm long.
Flowers	Flowers are light blue and radially symmetrical or slightly irregular, with one of the six tepals diverging from the others. Tepals are 20-35 mm long x 3-5 mm wide with 3-5 veins and are not twisted above the fruit at maturity.
Fruit	Fruit capsules are oval to elliptic, 15-25 mm long
Edibility	The bulbs of Camassia cusickii are slimy, malodorous, and unpalatable.

	Camassia cusickii
Identification notes	Camassia leichtlinii has radially symmetric flowers, darker blue-purple tepals that twist together over the capsule at maturity, and have fewer than 10 leaves. Camassia quamash has irregular flowers (symmetrical in ssp. quamash that are pale to dark blue purple and has fewer than 10 leaves (Hitchcock and Cronquist 2018).
Flowering time	May-July
Habitat	Moist slopes and seeps, often montane.
Distribution	Disjunct in Klickitat County in Washington; northeastern Oregon and adjacent western Idaho. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Origin	Native
Conservation status	Sensitive in Washington (WANHP)
Sibling taxa	C. leichtlinii, C. quamash
Web links	Local floras: 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

Camassia cusickii

Cusick's camas

Habit

Perennial herb from elliptic, clustered, mucilaginous bulbs 3-5 cm thick x 6-8 cm long.

Leaves

Leaves are lance-linear, 30-50 cm long x 10-35 mm wide (but up to 50 mm wide) and typically number more than 10 per stem.

Inflorescence

Flowering stems are 40-50 cm long and topped by a crowded inflorescence 50-80 cm long.

Flowers

Flowers are light blue and radially symmetrical or slightly irregular, with one of the six tepals diverging from the others. Tepals are 20-35 mm long x 3-5 mm wide with 3-5 veins and are not twisted above the fruit at maturity.

Fruit

Fruit capsules are oval to elliptic, 15-25 mm long

Edibility

The bulbs of Camassia cusickii are slimy, malodorous, and unpalatable.

Camassia cusickii

Identification notes

Camassia leichtlinii has radially symmetric flowers, darker blue-purple tepals that twist together over the capsule at maturity, and have fewer than 10 leaves. Camassia quamash has irregular flowers (symmetrical in ssp. quamash that are pale to dark blue purple and has fewer than 10 leaves (Hitchcock and Cronquist 2018).

Flowering time

May-July

Habitat

Moist slopes and seeps, often montane.

Distribution