Camassia quamash subsp. breviflora

Family: Agavaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Camas is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, northern Sierra Nevada, and Cascade Range in wet meadows at elevations below 2,500 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces striking blue violet to bright blue flowers in dense clusters with 10 to 20 blossoms open simultaneously. Growing with slender stems 20 to 50 centimeters tall emerging from a single bulb, it develops elongated leaves typically less than 10 in number and 15 to 30 centimeters long. Its leaves are broad, measuring 6 to 17 millimeters wide, with a grass-like appearance. The fruit develops as an ovoid structure 8 to 20 millimeters long, containing 5 to 10 seeds per chamber.

Habitat: Wet meadows

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: < 2500 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, n SNH

California counties: Plumas, Siskiyou, Mariposa, Lassen, Nevada, Placer, Shasta, El Dorado, Mono, Modoc, Sierra, Mendocino, Humboldt, Tuolumne, Trinity, Tulare, Butte, Tehama, Yuba, Stanislaus, Lake

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.