Common Camas
Camassia quamash
The blue tide of Northwest wet meadows in spring, its starry flowers rising over grassy leaves. Its bulbs were a staple food cultivated by Indigenous peoples for millennia, slow pit-roasted for days into a sweet, chestnut-like food — but camas bulbs closely resemble the deadly, unrelated 'death camas' (Toxicoscordion) before flowering, a well-documented and sometimes fatal mix-up. Never dig camas bulbs without the plant in bloom to confirm identity.
- Family
- Asparagaceae
- Type
- wildflower
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 2.3–2.3 ft
- Spacing
- 0.5–1 ft apart
- Light
- sun
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- acidic, neutral
- Bloom
- April, May, June
- Bloom colors
- blue
- Wildlife value
- pollinators
- Landscape uses
- border, rain garden
- Native states
- CA, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY