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Key to families | Table of families and genera

This text currently parallels The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California, Second Edition that is now available at the University of California Press.

Text appearing in blue on this page will not appear in the printed book; it will be displayed only on the Web. Specimen numbers are hyperlinked to records in the Consortium of California Herbaria data view where possible. Taxa are hyperlinked to entries in the Jepson Interchange via the "[Online Interchange]" link.

 

CAMASSIA CAMAS, QUAMASH
Perennial; bulb 1 [or clustered (each bulb has 1 leaf-cluster, 1 scape, or both, so no need to dig up bulbs to make this determination)], coat black or brown.
Leaf: basal, linear, keeled, glabrous.
Inflorescence: scapose raceme; flowers 3–many; bracts 1–6 cm, narrow- lanceolate, scarious in age; pedicels 1–5 cm, spreading or incurved in fruit.
Flower: ± radial (or bilateral); perianth parts 6, in 2 petal-like whorls, fused < 5% of length, 12–40 mm, lanceolate, blue to ± purple (white), 3–9 veined, twisted together above ovary in fruit [or not]; stamens 6, anthers generally 4–7 mm, attached at middle; ovary chambers 3.
Fruit: loculicidal.
Seed: 6–36, black.
n=15.
± 6 species, 4 in nw North America. (chamass, qám'es, or quamash, Native American word) [Uyeda & Kephart 2006 Syst Bot 31:643–655] CA species highly variable, may hybridize, in need of study; bulbs traded among, eaten by Native Americans, perhaps creating local forms.

Key to Camassia

1. Perianth parts generally 20–40 mm, in fruit early-deciduous; pedicels in fruit generally ± spreading ..... C. leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii

1' Perianth parts generally 10–20 mm, in fruit persistent; pedicels in fruit erect to incurved ..... C. quamash subsp. breviflora

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Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].
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