Camassia quamash ssp. quamash
Paul Slichter

Flora of Oregon

Plants 20–70 cm tall.

Leaves 18–50 cm × 6–30 mm, glaucous adaxially.

Inflorescences sterile bracts 0–1.

Flowers corollas bilateral; tepals pale blue to deep blue-violet, 10–35 × 5–8 mm, withering separately, veins 3(5); anthers blue-violet to brown.

Fruits erect on pedicels and positioned close to stem, 8–16 mm.

Seeds 5–10 per locule.

Flowering Apr–Jul. 50–2200 m. BR, BW, Col, ECas. ID, WA; north to British Columbia, northeast to Alberta and MT. Native.

In Oregon, C. q. ssp. quamash is present only east of the Cascades and is more abundant in Idaho and Montana. In the past, some authorities misapplied this name to plants of C. leichtlinii outside this range, leading to misidentification, particularly in California, and southern and western Oregon.

Flora of North America

as described under Camassia quamash ssp. quamash

Leaves 6-15 mm wide, glaucous adaxially. Flowers slightly zygomorphic or actinomorphic; tepals withering separately after anthesis, pale to deep blue or bluish violet, each 3-veined, sometimes 5-veined in inner whorls, 15-30 × 3-5 mm; anthers dark bluish violet to brown, 2.5-4 mm; fruiting pedicel incurving-erect, with capsules appressed to raceme axes, 25-70 mm. Capsules 8-16 mm. Seeds 5-10 per locule.Flowering mid--late spring. Wet meadows; 300--2500 m; Alta., B.C.; Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash., Wyo.

Photo images

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Herbarium specimens

https://www.pnwherbaria.org/images/thumbnail.php?Image=CIC024780.jpg
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