Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Liliopsida -- monocots

Family: Liliaceae -- lily

Subspecies: The Palouse phase is ssp. quamash

Common Name: common camas, small camas

Species Code: CAQU2

Origin: Native to vernally moist to wet meadows that dry out later in the season from British Columbia south to California and east to Utah, Montana, and Wyoming.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial, from an ovoid bulb, scapose, 20-90 cm tall.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: moderate lifespan

Habitat Type: wetlands, riparian

Wetland Indicator Status: FACW

Leaves: basal, several to numerous, dark green, shorter than the scape, linear-lanceolate, sheathing, entire margined.

Mature height: 12-20 inches

Flowers: perfect, borne in a terminal raceme 5-27 cm long, pale or purplish blue, rarely white; 6 tepals, lanceolate, 15-40 mm long, 2-8 mm wide.

Flower color: blue to purple

Bloom: May

Fruit: capsule, ovoid, 10-15 mm long; seeds black, shiny, 2-4 mm.

Characteristics:
Quamasia quamash in Piper & Beattie 1914.
Reproduces sexually by seed and vegetatively by bulb offsets, although offsets are apparently not common.
Bulbs transplant readily.
104,027 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
117,014 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Perennating organ is a bulb.
2n=30 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993).
Flowers are perfect.
Bulbs are edible and made up a significant portion of the diet of Native American tribes in the Inland Northwest.
Fruit is a capsule.
Elk, deer and moose graze the plant in early spring (Craighead et al 1963). Valuable forage for Rocky Mountain elk in spring, less valuable in summer (Kufeld 1973). Pocket gophers eat the bulbs and may move bulbs to other areas (Stevens et al 2000).

Comments: Wet meadow taxon collected before 1917 in the Palouse, mostly from wet meadows that dry out by summer.

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: moist to vernally wet

Precipitation: 16-55 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Probably top-killed by early season fire. Increases with frequent fire (Howard 1993)

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: fall as bulbs

Stratification: cold moist plus cool incubation

Seed yield: high

Seed harvest: early July

Seed first harvest: 4-5 years from seed

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: moderate

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: early July

Seed comments: slow to flower from seed

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: wetland

Propagation:
3 protocols in the Native Plant Network
vegetative, Pullman WA Plant Materials Center
seeds, Pullman WA Plant Materials Center
seeds, Glacier National Park, Montana

Other Propagation Information:
Germinates at low temperatures after 90 days cold, moist stratification in the dark or 120 days in light (Nauman 2002).
Germinates after 42-100 days of cold moist stratification. Warm temperatures during seedling growth can kill the plant. Seed can also be fall planted (Stevens et al 2000, Stevens et al 2001).
Reproduces sexually by seed and vegetatively by bulb offsets, although offsets are apparently not common.
Bulbs transplant readily.

Notes: Camassia quamash is a great early season bulb with a fantastic flower. Flowers in May. Bulbs are available commercially. Takes 4-5 years to flower from seed. Seedlings must be grown outdoors, will not survive in warm greenhouses. Rabbits and California Quail like to eat the plants, so they may be difficult to grow if you have either in your yard. Common names include camas or common camas (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Howard, Janet L. 1993. Camassia quamash. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, July 27].

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Nauman, C. 2002. Germination of 12 Palouse Prairie forbs after stratification under light and dark treatments. M.S. Thesis, University of Idaho, Moscow ID.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Stevens, Michelle, Dale C. Darris and Scott M. Lambert. 2000. Plant Guide for Common Camas: Ethnobotany, Culture Management, and Use. Plant Materials Tech Note 41. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Spokane, WA.

Stevens, Michelle, Dale C. Darris, and Scott M. Lambert. 2001. Ethnobotany, Culture, Management and Use of Common Camas. Native Plants Journal 2(1):47-53.

USDA, NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 27 July 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Weddell, B.J. 2002. Historical vegetation of seasonally moist depressions in the South Fork of the Palouse River Watershed. Appendix 5 in G. Servheen, P. Morgan, B. Weddell, P. Gessler, and P. McDaniel. Wetlands of the Palouse Prairie: Historical Extent and Plant Composition. Unpublished report funded by the USDI Environmental Protection Agency. Online at http://www.palouseprairie.org/pppubs.html

Weddell, B.J. 2002. The Causes and Consequences of Loss of a Culturally Significant Resource: Seasonally Moist Meadows in the Palouse Region. Appendix 4 in G. Servheen, P. Morgan, B. Weddell, P. Gessler, and P. McDaniel. Wetlands of the Palouse Prairie: Historical Extent and Plant Composition. Unpublished report funded by the USDI Environmental Protection Agency. Online at http://www.palouseprairie.org/pppubs.html

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium