Burke: Camassia quamash vs. Camassia cusickii

	Camassia quamash	Camassia cusickii
	common camas	Cusick's camas
Habit	Scapose perennial from a deep-seated bulb, the scape 2-7 dm. tall.	Perennial herb from elliptic, clustered, mucilaginous bulbs 3-5 cm thick x 6-8 cm long.
Leaves	Leaves several, all basal, 8-20 mm. broad, considerably shorter than the scape.	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	Inflorescence a raceme, many-flowered, 5-30 cm. long; pedicels 10-20 mm. long, spreading, arched or ascending in flower, incurved-erect in fruit; flowers pale to deep blue or violet, somewhat irregular; tepals 6, distinct, 15-35 mm. long and 2-8 mm. broad, narrowed at base, lowest segment curved outward and downward away from the others, all withering separately and exposing the ovary; stamens 6, anthers yellow or blue, style slender, stigmas 3.	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	Capsule ovoid, 3-celled, 1-2.5 cm. long.	Fruit capsules are oval to elliptic, 15-25 mm long
Edibility		The bulbs of Camassia cusickii are slimy, malodorous, and unpalatable.

	Camassia quamash	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	April-June	May-July
Habitat	Open, moist areas, often where dry by late spring, from lowlands to mid-elevations in the mountains.	Moist slopes and seeps, often montane.
Distribution	Widely distributed on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to Montana and Utah. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]	Disjunct in Klickitat County in Washington; northeastern Oregon and adjacent western Idaho. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Origin	Native	Native
Conservation status	Not of concern	Sensitive in Washington (WANHP)
Sibling taxa	C. cusickii, C. leichtlinii	C. leichtlinii, C. quamash
Subordinate taxa	C. quamash ssp. azurea, C. quamash ssp. breviflora, C. quamash ssp. maxima, C. quamash ssp. quamash
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, 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

common camas

Cusick's camas

Habit

Scapose perennial from a deep-seated bulb, the scape 2-7 dm. tall.

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

Leaves

Leaves several, all basal, 8-20 mm. broad, considerably shorter than the scape.

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

Inflorescence a raceme, many-flowered, 5-30 cm. long;

pedicels 10-20 mm. long, spreading, arched or ascending in flower, incurved-erect in fruit;

flowers pale to deep blue or violet, somewhat irregular;

tepals 6, distinct, 15-35 mm. long and 2-8 mm. broad, narrowed at base, lowest segment curved outward and downward away from the others, all withering separately and exposing the ovary;

stamens 6, anthers yellow or blue, style slender, stigmas 3.

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

Capsule ovoid, 3-celled, 1-2.5 cm. long.

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

Edibility

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

Camassia quamash

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

April-June

May-July

Habitat

Open, moist areas, often where dry by late spring, from lowlands to mid-elevations in the mountains.

Moist slopes and seeps, often montane.

Distribution