Camassia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the plants called death camas or deathcamas, see Melanthieae.

Camassia
Indian camas (Camassia quamash)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Agavoideae
Genus: Camassia
Lindl.
Type species
Camassia quamash
(Pursh) Greene
Synonyms[1]
  • Stilla W.Young
  • Cyanotris Raf.
  • Bulbedulis Raf.
  • Kweetla Raf.
  • Lemotrys Raf.
  • Quamasia Raf.
  • Sitocodium
    Salisb.
Cusick's camas (Camassia cusickii)
Common camas (Camassia quamash ssp. quamash)

Camassia is a genus of plants in the asparagus family native to North America. Common names include camas, quamash, Indian hyacinth, camash, and wild hyacinth.[citation needed]

It grows in the wild in great numbers in moist meadows. They are

perennial plants with basal linear leaves measuring 20 to 80 centimetres (8 to 32 in) in length, which emerge early in the spring. They grow to a height of 30 to 130 cm (12 to 50 in), with a multi-flowered stem rising above the main plant in summer. The six-petaled flowers
vary in color from pale lilac or white to deep purple or blue-violet. Camas can appear to color entire meadows when in flower.

Taxonomy and species

Historically, the genus was placed in the lily family (

lilioid monocots.[2] When the Liliaceae was split, in some treatments Camassia was placed in a family called Hyacinthaceae (now the subfamily Scilloideae).[3] DNA and biochemical studies have led the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group to reassign Camassia to the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae.[4]

Species

The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognizes six species as of April 2015:[1][5][6]

formerly included[1]

The name Camassia biflora was coined in 1969[7] for a South American species now known as Oziroe biflora.[8]

Synonyms

The term Camassia esculenta is a confusing one. Not an accepted name, it has been used twice, both for Camassia quamash and for Camassia scilloides. Consequently, the reference to Camassia esculenta (Ker Gawl.) B.L.Rob.[9] as a synonym for C. scilloides is deemed illegitimate,[10] while reference to Camassia esculenta (Nutt.) Lindl.[11] is a non-accepted name (synonym) for C. quamash subsp. quamash.[12] Hence the continuing horticultural usage without qualification is potentially confusing.[13]

Cultivation and uses

Indigenous methods of cultivation

Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest engaged in active management and cultivation of blue camas (Kweetla). They used controlled burning to clear land and improve growing conditions. While blue camas plots occurred naturally in the Pacific Northwest, Indigenous peoples would maintain a plot through weeding, tilling, harvesting Camas bulbs, and replanting. Camas plots were harvested by individuals or kin-groups, who were recognized as a particular plot’s cultivators or stewards.[14][15][16] Stewardship was typically lineage-based, and cultivation rights to a particular plot were fiercely guarded. Multiple generations would often harvest the same Camas plot. Plots have been recorded as possessing physical boundary markers, and there were social consequences for harvesting from a plot that was recognized as being maintained by a particular individual or kin-group.[15][16] The camas bulbs were harvested with a pointed wooden tool, with the work of cultivation being done primarily by women.[17]

Food use

Camassia species were an important food staple for

American Old West
. While Camassia species are edible and nutritious, the white-flowered deathcamas species (which are not in the genus Camassia but in a number of genera in the tribe Melanthieae) that grow in the same areas are toxic, and the bulbs are quite similar in appearance. It is easiest to tell the plants apart when they are in flower.

The quamash was a

oligosaccharides.[19][20] After cooking, the bulbs could be pounded into a paste and made into cakes.[21]

Native American peoples who ate camas include the

Kutenai called the camas "xapi" (Ktunaxa).[23] Camas bulbs contributed to the survival of members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.[24]

In the Great Basin, expanded settlement by whites accompanied by turning cattle and hogs onto camas prairies greatly diminished food available to native tribes and increased tension between Native Americans and settlers and travelers.[25] Though the once-immense[citation needed] spreads of camas lands have diminished because of modern developments and agriculture, numerous camas prairies and marshes may still be seen today.

Ornamental use

This bulbflower naturalizes well in gardens. The bulb grows best in well-drained soil high in humus. It will grow in lightly shaded forest areas and on rocky outcrops as well as in open meadows or prairies. Additionally it is found growing alongside streams and rivers. The plants may be divided in autumn after the leaves have withered. Bulbs should be planted in the autumn. Additionally the plant spreads by seed rather than by runners.

Place names

Many areas in the Pacific Northwest are named for the plant, including Camas Valley, Oregon; the city of Camas, Washington; Lacamas Creek in southern Washington;[26] the Camas Prairie in northern Idaho (and its Camas Prairie Railroad); Camas County in southern Idaho;[27] and Kamas, Utah.

Role in indigenous trade and culture

Camas was an important component of the diets of most indigenous groups located in the Pacific Northwest. However, not all indigenous groups harvested camas themselves. Instead, many relied on trade in order to procure it. Indigenous groups that lived in environments that suited camas production, such as the Coast Salish, developed networks of exchange in order to procure a variety of goods and foods, such as cedar bark baskets and dried halibut.[28]

In North American Indigenous cultures, trade had economic as well as diplomatic functions, with ceremonies such as the potlatch serving as a means to legitimize an individual’s rule and establish their status as a provider.[29] Camas was frequently traded in large volumes for such occasions.[30]

Theories of anthropogenic dispersal

As indigenous land-management techniques have been theorized as having had a significant impact on the maintenance of the

Garry oak ecosystem,[31] one of the primary ecosystems in which Camassia quamash grows, researchers have investigated the potentiality of anthropogenic transport through an investigation of the genetic structure of Camassia quamash.[18] Despite historical evidence for anthropogenic maintenance of camas plots and transportation through Indigenous trade networks,[28] analysis of the genetic structures of Camassia quamash have not substantiated theories of anthropogenic dispersal. The distribution of Camassia quamash across the Pacific Northwest is most likely the result of postglacial migration. These results imply that the degree of anthropogenic dispersal of Camassia quamash that occurred was not of such a scale as to leave a marker in the plant’s genetic structure.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 2015-04-10
  2. ^ Ranker, Tom A. & Hogan, Tim, Camassia, retrieved 2012-05-16, in Flora of North America Editorial Committee, ed. (1982), Flora of North America (online), eFloras.org
  3. JSTOR 4110602
  4. ^ Stevens, P.F., Angiosperm Phylogeny Website: Asparagales: Agavoideae
  5. ^ The Plant List
  6. ^ Biota of North America Progran 2013 county distribution maps
  7. ^ Cocucci, Alfredo Elio. 1969. Kurtziana 5: 184
  8. ^ Speta, Franz. 1998. Phyton. Annales Rei Botanicae 38: 56
  9. ^ Rhodora 10: 31 (1908)
  10. ^ World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Camassia esculenta (Ker Gawl.) B.L.Rob.
  11. ^ Edwards's Bot. Reg. 18: t. 1486 (1832)
  12. ^ World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Camassia esculenta (Nutt.) Lindl.
  13. ^ Dig Drop Done
  14. doi:10.14288/bcs.v0i179.184108
    .
  15. ^
    ISBN 2881244653.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  16. ^
    doi:10.14288/bcs.v0i179.184112
    .
  17. ^ Brown, R (1868). "On the Vegetable Products, used by the North-West American Indians as Food and Medecine, in the Arts, and in Superstitious Rites". Transactions of the Botanical Society. 9: 378–396.
  18. ^
    S2CID 14031676
    .
  19. ^ "Plant Spotlights" (PDF).
  20. ^ "Appreciating Common Camas (Camassia quamash) during Native Plant Appreciation Week".
  21. JSTOR 43996285
    ., s.v. Camas Salish
  22. ^ "About Us". Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  23. ^ "FirstVoices- Ktunaxa. Plants: food plants: words". Retrieved 2012-07-07.
  24. ^ Hunter, Frances. Nearly all the men Sick: Lewis and Clark meet the Camas Root" in Frances Hunter's American Heroes Blog. [1] Accessed 2016/3/24
  25. ISBN 0-87480-494-9
  26. ISBN 978-0-918664-00-6
    .
  27. ^ Idaho.gov - Camas County Archived November 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine - accessed 2009-06-06
  28. ^
    JSTOR 25605872
    .
  29. S2CID 149550628
    .
  30. ISBN 2881244653.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  31. S2CID 86686044
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Camassia.
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Look up camassia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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