Camassia quamash |
Camassia quamash subsp. azurea |
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camas, common camas, small camas |
blue camas, prairie camas |
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Bulbs | seldom clustered, globose, 1–5 cm diam. |
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Leaves | usually fewer than 10, 1–6 dm × 4–20 mm. |
4–13 mm wide, not glaucous. |
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Inflorescences | 20–80 cm; sterile bracts absent, bracts subtending flowers usually equaling or exceeding pedicel. |
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Flowers | usually zygomorphic, sometimes actinomorphic; tepals withering separately or connivent over capsules after anthesis, long-persistent on fruiting racemes, blue or bluish violet, each 3–9-veined, 12–35 × 1.5–8 mm; anthers usually yellow, sometimes bluish violet, violet, or brown, 2.5–7 mm; fruiting pedicel mostly incurving-erect, occasionally spreading-erect, 5–70 mm. |
slightly zygomorphic or actinomorphic; tepals withering separately after anthesis, light bluish violet, each 5–9- veined, 3-veined in outer whorls, 12–27 × 1.5–3 mm; anthers yellow, 2.5–4 mm; fruiting pedicel spreading-erect, with capsules held away from raceme axes, 25–60 mm. |
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Capsules | not deciduous, pale green to pale brown, ovoid, 6–19 mm. |
7–15 mm. |
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Seeds | 5–10 per locule. |
5–10 per locule. |
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2n | = 30. |
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Camassia quamash |
Camassia quamash subsp. azurea |
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Phenology | Flowering mid–late spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Alluvial plains, meadows, light, well-drained prairie soils | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–200 m [0–700 ft] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
w United States and Canada
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WA |
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Discussion | camassia quamash is highly variable morphologically. although there tend to be distinct geographical variants. here recognized as subspecies following f. w. gould (1942), there is much overlap among them. the subspecific status of these taxa is retained to highlight the extreme morphological variability and geographical patterns within the species. a detailed biosystematic study of this complex is needed Subspecies 8 (8 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 304. | FNA vol. 26, p. 305. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Phalangium quamash | Quamasia azurea | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Pursh) Greene: Man. Bot. San Francisco, 313. (1894) | (A. Heller) Gould: Amer. Midl. Naturalist 28: 733. (1942) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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