Plant of the Month: Camas

Articles: Plant of the Month: Camas

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With the rising desire of gardeners to grow native plants, it’s no wonder that camas (Camassia) is increasingly common in Pacific Northwest (PNW) yards. As a garden plant, camas takes me (Ross) right back to my youth when I lovingly planted the fat white bulbs of great camas (Camassia leichtlinii) in my parents’ plot in Scotland, but this plant has two horticultural histories. One is as an ornamental, bulk-grown in the bulb fields of the Netherlands since the 1800s. The other more ancient, a staple for Native peoples across the Northwest.

While its role as a food plant—and one of the faces of tribal food sovereignty—is now more widely understood, camas also speaks to an often-unacknowledged truth. Tribes in the PNW grew this plant; they didn’t just harvest it from the wild. They cultivated the land and improved it to increase yields. They selected better forms to boost their harvest. They weeded out competing plants and removed toxic doppelgangers. In short, camas cultivation, whether for food or fancy, was and is at the root of horticulture in the Pacific Northwest.

Photos courtesy of the author; Dr. Ross Bayton

Roots are a good place to start this story. Camas—also known as prairie lily or wild hyacinth, or by numerous orthographical variants (for example, kamas, camash, quamash)—is a bulbous plant in the asparagus family (Asparagaceae). Native only to North America, two species can be found east of the Rockies (Camassia scilloides, C. angusta), but it’s the four western species that are the focus here.

Most widespread is common or small camas (Camassia quamash), a plant whose Latin name incorporates its Indigenous name twice. It ranges from Alberta south to Utah and west to the coast. Great camas (C. leichtlinii) has a narrower range from British Columbia south to Tulare County in California. The remaining two species are limited geographically, with Cusick’s camas (C. cusickii) on the Oregon–Idaho border and Howell’s camas (C. howellii) only in southwest Oregon.

Cultivation of camas as an ornamental has a long history. The first species to be scientifically described was common camas (as Phalangium quamash) in 1813, though plants had been collected by Lewis and Clark earlier that century and likely spared them from starvation. They were introduced into Europe at some point in the nineteenth century, possibly by the great German bulb enthusiast Max Leichtlin (1831–1910), to whom great camas owes its scientific name. Plants of great camas arrived in the United Kingdom from Oregon in 1853 and by 1874 were said to be widely cultivated in England and on the Continent. They have been in regular production in Dutch bulb fields for over 100 years.

As a garden plant, camas has much to offer. It typically flowers later than many other common spring bulbs, with the earliest blooms in mid-April and mass flowering by mid-May here in Washington. (Along the West Coast, its natural bloom season ranges from April to June, depending upon latitude and elevation). It acts as a useful filler of the “May gap,” that lull between spring blooming and the start of the summer season.

Unusually for a bulb, camas is very tolerant of wet and heavy soils, and it thrives around ponds and on marshy ground. It’s also a good naturalizer, readily spreading by seed to colonize adjacent areas. If it does have a downside, then perhaps it is the lack of post-flower appeal. The leaves should be left after blooming so the bulb can replenish itself, but they are ugly, and an ideal scenario is to include summer-flowering perennials nearby that grow up to conceal this sight.

Cultivation of camas is simple. Plant bulbs in the fall at three times their own depth, ideally in a sunny site for maximum flowering. Camas can grow in formal beds or containers but really is at its best in more naturalistic settings. Leave the spent flowers to produce seed if you want your camas to spread. As a bulbous plant, gardeners are most likely to find it for sale in bulb catalogs or packaged at nurseries in the fall. Some native plant nurseries stock growing plants at flowering time and seeds are also available.

But which camas to choose? Great camas provides the most options and as the tallest species, has grace and utility. The Caerulea Group (C. leichtlinii ssp. suksdorfii) includes some of the best blues, while ‘Blue Heaven’ (C. leichtlinii ‘Blue Heaven’) offers paler sky tones. ‘Sacajawea’ is an elegant form with white-striped leaves and white blooms, and the double-flowered ‘Semiplena’ is also striking. There is a pink cultivar, ‘Pink Stars’, but it’s not for me, being a little too sugary; the purple ‘Plum Tart’ does make me drool, but ironically only seems to be available in England.

Amongst common camas (C. quamash), ‘Blue Melody’ and ‘Orion’ are both widely available, and ‘Zwanenburg’ Cusick’s camas (C. cusickii ‘Zwanenburg’) is another staple; all three offer shades of blue.

Interestingly, wild populations of camas often have flowers in varying tones from purple to blue to white, but white blooms have been looked at with disfavor by many Native peoples as they resemble the flowers of death-camas (Toxicoscordion venenosum), a native plant as deadly as its name suggests. More on that later.

The Royal Horticultural Society is currently trialing camas cultivars in their Garden Bridgewater near Manchester, England, and I look forward to seeing the results upon completion in 2026.

Here at Heronswood, we’re experimenting with several camas selections to assess their horticultural value. Of course, as the nation’s only Tribal-owned botanical garden, Heronswood has another big reason to grow camas. In 2023, we began to develop an authentic camas prairie at the edge of our S’Klallam Connections Garden (SCG). I’ll hand over to SCG creator and Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribal member Debby to pick up the story.

Edible camas, qʷɬúʔi, has been a staple food for Indigenous people since time immemorial, not only nourishing our bodies but also teaching us about reciprocity. Camas provides and cares for us, just as we care for camas. Not only does working the lands and harvesting the camas provide starches needed to survive, but it also historically provided us with grazing lands that brought the game that helped to feed the people. Traditionally, women maintained and worked the land, as it is the women that provide life.

Camas holds a special place in my heart, I feel a sense of connectedness to my ancestors, while trying to regain and reclaim the relationship between camas and The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe.

In 2023, we began the installation of a traditional camas prairie at Heronswood in the S’Klallam Connections Garden. Our goals were both to have traditional camas harvests and bakes, and to teach tribal members how to identify—and ethically and sustainably harvest—not only camas but all traditional plants.

Camas is the perfect example of the amazing things that can happen when we live with nature instead of just taking from it. While harvesting camas, we were taught it’s best to collect when in bloom, to ensure you are collecting the right bulb. Our ancestors had worked the land for so long that they were able to eradicate toxic death-camas from some prairies, and instead harvested camas bulbs later in the year, as seed was being produced. They could then plant the seeds whilst harvesting food, also leaving the smaller bulbs so the camas and the prairies flourished.

I remember hearing a Plateau Tribal story retold by Roger Fernandez, Lower Elwha Tribal member, of how the first camas came to be…

A long time ago in a village on the other side of the mountains, there was a time of great hunger. There was no food to be found—no game to hunt, no plants to gather. The People were very hungry. The elders and the children were crying from the hunger, but there was nothing to give them. A grandmother heard her grandchildren crying because they were hungry. She was so sad and had nothing to give them. She left the village and went up a nearby hill. At the top of the hill, she sat down and began to cry. She cried and cried for her grandchildren. As she cried, she began to sink into the ground. She kept crying and sinking deeper into the earth. After a while she was gone. She was under the earth. Her grandchildren, a boy and a girl, missed their grandmother and wondered where she was. They began to look for her. They climbed the hill. As they reached the top of the hill, the granddaughter said, “Grandma is under the ground! I can feel her!” The children dug into the ground. They dug and dug and found camas bulbs. Grandmother had become camas and now the children and the people had food to eat. Camas is a main food of the Native people of the Plateau region. And that is all.

This article is sponsored by:

The Summer-Dry Project

The Summer-Dry Project is an on-going initiative to provide gardeners in summer-dry, mediterranean climates authoritative plant information and inspiring photos that encourage sustainable garden practices.

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