RHH's photos with the keyword: quamash

Common Camas is one of our spring wildflowers, usually a deep blue, but occasionally white. This was photographed near our home last spring.

One white Camas among the more common blue forms. Camas is a common wildflower in our area, growing in wet areas and filling meadows with color. It has an edible bulb that was an important food source for the native peoples.

This is the ordinary blue color of Common Camas, a very common spring wildflower in our area. I saw it yesterday in every damp area near our home while out walking. This example was photographed near Hog Lake.

Camas was an important plant to the native Americans who used the bulbs for food. It grows in wetter areas on the prairies and is usually blue but can be found in pink and white as well. We found a few white flowers when we were at Hog Lake this past week.

Common Camas is a beautiful prairie wildflower of the Pacific Northwest but was an important food plant as well for native Americans. It's sweet bulbs could be roasted or steamed and eaten or ground into a powder and used as a sweetener or flour. These were photographed near our home where it grows in abundance.

These are the flowers of Common Camas, a wildflower that grows near our home.

These are the buds and a flower of Common Camas, a wildflower of the Pacific Northwest. They grow in wet areas near our home and often cover whole fields with a blue blanket in the spring.

Camassia quamash was second only to salmon as a food source among the native Indian tribes of the northwest. In many cases families had their own areas which were handed down from generation to generation, and the bulbs, the edible part of the plant, were very carefully harvested with only the largest bulbs being taken. These flower buds were photographed in Washington Park near Anacortes, Washington.

These are Common Camas, Camassia quamash, growing in a meadow at Catherine Creek in the Columbia River gorge. We were there two weeks ago and agreed that we had never seen such a display or so many of them. Camas bulbs were an important food source for the native Americans and it may be they dug them here at Catherine Creek. Interestingly we found among them the Meadow Death Camas (Toxicoscordion venenosum) which has very different flowers but similar-looking bulbs, and which is very poisonous and can cause death if mistaken for the edible Common Camas. There is a photo of the flowers of the Death Camas in the inset.

Common Camas is well named since it is one of most common wildflowers in the Pacific Northwest. We have seen fields and prairies covered with thousands of them in bloom. They were also an important food source for native Americans who dug and ate the bulbs. These were photographed in eastern Washington, but they grow west of the mountains as well.

The Common Camas, Camassia quamash, was an important food source for the native Americans who dug the bulbs in the autumn, roasted or boiled them and sometimes ground them up for flour. These were photographed in Washington Park on Fidalgo Island, where they are common, but there are other areas where they cover whole meadows.

A beautiful spring wildflower which was once an important food source for native Americans. The bulbs were harvested, roasted or boiled or dried and pounded into flower. These were photographed on Pass Island in Deception Pass, but we have seen them all over the Pacific Northwest, sometimes covering fields with their blooms.

These were not open yet when we visited Sharpe Park last spring, but they are a very common wildflower here in the Pacific Northwest and an important food source for the native Americans. We have seen them growing in fields by the thousands and probably in areas that were carefully harvested in years past. The bulbs are the edible part of the plant but one must be sure what one is eating since the Death Camas has similar looking plant and bulb, though the flowers are very different. These were photographed on the granite balds at Sares Head in Sharpe Park. The flowers are pictured in the inset photo.

Camassia quamash was second only to salmon as a food source among the native Indian tribes of the northwest. In many case families had their own areas which were handed down from generation to generation, and the bulbs, the edible part of the plant, were vary carefully harvested with only the largest bulbs being taken. They are still sometimes eaten today, but the following warning applies: "Death camas (Zigadenus venenosus) can be confused with edible camas bulbs and is toxic. Be sure of your identification of camas bulbs before eating them!"

A bank of Common Camas, (Camassia quamash) photographed along Old Highway 30 in the Columbia River gorge in Oregon. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/06/columbia-ri...