Camas Seed for Sale
Camassia quamash
$75.00 per pound
(pounds per seed: +/- 20,000)
Contact: Ron Harland
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Details
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Description
General: Lily Family (Liliaceae). Common camas (Camassia quamash ssp. breviflora) is a stout, robust, 12-28 inches (30-70 cm) tall plant with a dense inflorescence.
Ornamental: Horticulturally, this plant is used for cut flowers, beds, borders, ground cover, rock gardens, and prairie restoration.
Camases are liliaceous, perennial herbs that grow from an edible bulb. The leaves are long and narrow, grass-like, and emerge from the base. Common camas flowers are light to deep blue; more than 3 flowers in an inflorescence may be open at one time. Camas flowers have 6 tepals, 6 stamens, and 3 stigmas. The inflorescence is a spike-like cluster borne on a leafless stem that is held above the leaves.
Common camas blooms from April through June. The fruits are barrel-shaped to three-angled capsules, splitting into three parts to release many black, angled seeds.
Distribution
Common camas grows in wet meadows, wet prairies, swales, depressions, annual floodplains, moist hillsides, and streamside areas. Camas habitat is often ephemeral, drying out by late spring. Common camas grows throughout the American West to southwest Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah at elevations below 3300 meters. The southern limit of its range in California is the high Sierra Nevada Mountains and Modoc Plateau.
Establishment
Common camas can be propagated from seeds or bulbs. Common camas generally prefers full sun to partial shade, with bulb depth ranging from 2-8 inches (most commonly 4-6 inches deep).
Plant camas outdoors in the fall or early winter, when soils are moist enough to dig and prevailing soil temperatures are cool. This is generally below 60°F. Fall planting allows for better root development and fulfillment of any chilling requirement for flowering
(De Hertogh et. al. 1993).
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