Camassia

The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognizes six species as of April 2015:[1][5][6]

• Camassia angusta (Engelm. & A.Gray) Blank. - prairie camas - southern Great Plains + mid-Mississippi Valley (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana)
• Camassia cusickii S.Watson - Cusick's camas - northeastern Oregon, west-central Idaho
• Camassia howellii S.Watson - Howell's camas - southwestern Oregon
• Camassia leichtlinii (Baker) S.Watson - large camas, great camas - British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, northern + central California, Washoe County in Nevada
• Camassia quamash (Pursh) Greene - quamash, Indian camas, small camas - western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta), western United States (California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah)
• Camassia scilloides (Raf.) Cory - Atlantic camas, bear grass - eastern + Central North America from Maryland to Georgia, westward to Texas and north into Ontario.

formerly included[1]

The name Camassia biflora was coined in 1969[7] for a South American species now known as Oziroe biflora.[8]

The term Camassia esculenta is a confusing one. Not an accepted name, it has been used twice, both for Camassia quamash and for Camassia scilloides. Consequently, the reference to Camassia esculenta (Ker Gawl.) B.L.Rob.[9] as a synonym for C. scilloides is deemed illegitimate,[10] while reference to Camassia esculenta (Nutt.) Lindl.[11] is a non-accepted name (synonym) for C. quamash subsp. quamash.[12] Hence the continuing horticultural usage without qualification is potentially confusing.[13]

Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest engaged in active management and cultivation of blue camas (Kweetla). They used controlled burning to clear land and improve growing conditions. While blue camas plots occurred naturally in the Pacific Northwest, Indigenous peoples would maintain a plot through weeding, tilling, harvesting Camas bulbs, and replanting. Camas plots were harvested by individuals or kin-groups, who were recognized as a particular plot’s cultivators or stewards.[14][15][16] Stewardship was typically lineage-based, and cultivation rights to a particular plot were fiercely guarded. Multiple generations would often harvest the same Camas plot. Plots have been recorded as possessing physical boundary markers, and there were social consequences for harvesting from a plot that was recognized as being maintained by a particular individual or kin-group.[15][16] The camas bulbs were harvested with a pointed wooden tool, with the work of cultivation being done primarily by women.[17]

Camassia species were an important food staple for Indigenous peoples and settlers in parts of the American Old West. While Camassia species are edible and nutritious, the white-flowered deathcamas species (which are not in the genus Camassia but in a number of genera in the tribe Melanthieae) that grow in the same areas are toxic, and the bulbs are quite similar in appearance. It is easiest to tell the plants apart when they are in flower.

The quamash was a food source for many indigenous peoples in western North America. Blue camas was harvested when in bloom, in spring or early summer.[18] After being harvested the bulbs were pit-roasted or boiled. A pit-cooked camas bulb can take up to two days to fully cook. The look and taste is something like baked sweet potato, but sweeter, and with more crystalline fibers due to the presence of inulin in the bulbs. The eating of too many such baked bulbs – especially if undercooked – can cause excessive flatulence, due to their containing inulin and other oligosaccharides.[19][20] After cooking, the bulbs could be pounded into a paste and made into cakes.[21]

Native American peoples who ate camas include the Nez Perce (Nimíipuu), Cree, Kalapuya, Blackfoot, Yakama, and Coast Salish, including the Lekwungen or Songhees who collected camas in what is now Victoria, British Columbia, the Lekwungen name for which was Camosun, or "place to gather camas".[22] The Kutenai called the camas "xapi" (Ktunaxa).[23] Camas bulbs contributed to the survival of members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.[24]

In the Great Basin, expanded settlement by whites accompanied by turning cattle and hogs onto camas prairies greatly diminished food available to native tribes and increased tension between Native Americans and settlers and travelers.[25] Though the once-immense spreads of camas lands have diminished because of modern developments and agriculture, numerous camas prairies and marshes may still be seen today.

This bulbflower naturalizes well in gardens. The bulb grows best in well-drained soil high in humus. It will grow in lightly shaded forest areas and on rocky outcrops as well as in open meadows or prairies. Additionally it is found growing alongside streams and rivers. The plants may be divided in autumn after the leaves have withered. Bulbs should be planted in the autumn. Additionally the plant spreads by seed rather than by runners.