Camassia quamash ssp. walpolei
Gerald D. Carr

Flora of Oregon

Plants 20–45 cm tall.

Leaves 12–35 cm × 4–13 mm, not glaucous but uniformly green on both sides.

Inflorescences sterile bracts 0–2.

Flowers corollas radial to bilateral; tepals pale blue or blue-violet, 8–20 × 2–5 mm, withering separately and persistent on stem, veins 3(5); anthers mostly bright yellow.

Fruits erect on incurved pedicels and positioned close to stem, 8–15 mm.

Seeds 3–6 per locule.

Wet grassy meadows in Ponderosa pine forests, roadside ditches. Flowering Apr–Jun. 50–1400 m. BR, Casc, ECas, Sisk. Native.

The tiny, often radial flowers, combined with tepal venation and fruits held close to the stem typically separate C. q. ssp. walpolei from other species and subspecies. Although distinctive in southwestern Oregon and often described as the only radially symmetric subspecies of C. quamash, some populations of Walpole’s camas have plants that vary considerably in this trait.

Flora of North America

as described under Camassia quamash ssp. walpolei

Leaves 4-13 mm wide, not glaucous. Flowers actinomorphic; tepals withering separately after anthesis, pale blue or blue-violet, each 3-veined, sometimes 5-veined in outer whorls, 12-20 × 3-5 mm; anthers bright yellow, 3-5 mm; fruiting pedicel incurving-erect, with capsules closely appressed to raceme axes, 5-10 mm. Capsules 8-15 mm. Seeds 3-6 per locule.Flowering mid--late spring. Wet meadows; 100--1500 m; Oreg.

Photo images

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Herbarium specimens

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