Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: Ed Alverson on May 08, 2007, 07:56:45 PM
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Camassia is a genus of North American bulbous plants that I haven't seen mentioned that much on the SRGC forum. There are 6 species, but the most widely distributed species, Camassia quamash, has eight subspecies. Interestingly, DNA evidence has shown that Camassias are not lilies but are actually members of the Agave family. But we still call them camas lilies.
Camassias are at their peak bloom around here right now, so I'll post a few photos. In a good year, certain prairies and pastures are a sea of blue from Camassia quamash. They seem to be easily grown from seed but ironically they don't do well when growing with lush grasses, so trying to grow them in a "meadow" garden is tricky - usually you find them in places where the grass growth is more sparse or thatch is reduced by mowing or burning. If you look closely you can see that the area in the habitat view was mowed last fall. They often grow in clay soils that are very wet in the winter but very dry in the summer, which is true of this particular site.
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Ed, oddly they seem to be quite popular in the UK at present. Some of the "good" bulb suppliers stock them and I have been to a couple of nurseries lately who were retailing pot grown varieties. They are on my list of "wants" for next year.
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The second species we have in the Willamette Valley (as well as northward to British Columbia) is Camassia leichtlinii. Ssp. suksdorfii is the widespread purple or blue flowered form, the cream-flowered ssp. leichtlinii has a very local natural distribution in Douglas County Oregon. Camassia leichtlinii is distinguished (at least in our area) by flowers that are radially symmetrical, and by tepals that twist together over the overy after anthesis, rather than withering separately. Camassia leichtlinii is usually taller in stature than C. quamash. C. leichtlinii ssp suksdorfii is very variable, and some forms have better garden value than others. For example, some foms only have many flower buds but only a few flowers open at one time, which reduces the visual effect. Here is a photo of a relatively dwarf plant (about 1 ft. tall at this stage) which might be better than the usual tall form for rock gardens, that is, if the dwarfing is genetic (I haven't yet tried growing this form from seed). It may just be an ecologically induced dwarfing because it is growing an an area of shallow rocky soils that become very dry in the summer.
Just to confuse the issue, C. leichtlinii and C. quamash will hybridize where they grow together, so if you grow these plants from wild collected seed you may end up with a few hybrid plants. I find I can identify them by the slightly bilaterally symmetrical flowers, along with tepals that are more or less parallel as they wither but not twisting over the ovary.
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Ed,
The camassias are quite popular here in Ireland and grow very easily and well here.
Below are three photographs of one clump in my garden taken last month, though the camassias are still in flower.
Camassia leichtlinii
Paddy
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I have Camassia leichtlinii out at the moment and it is bulking up so fast that the clump of C. leichtlinii alba, supposedly next to it, is now overlapped by it. The latter is still a week or so off flowering.
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I am curious whether those of you who have sizable clumps of Camassia leichtlinii can say whether they are increasing via offsets or by seed. In the wild, at least, C. cusickii is the only species that normally produces offsets (at least, that is what the reference books say). C. leichtlinii and C. quamash increase by seed if the conditions are favorable but not by offsets. If they are increasing by offsets, perhaps the plants sold as C. leichtlinii have some C. cusickii blood in them? Or alternatively they could be a selected form of C. leichtlinii that has been established in the bulb trade specifically because of its ability to increase vegetatively?
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Definitely offsets, as I remove the heads before they set seed.
Anthony.
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Ed,
Again, as with Anthony, mine increase by offsets. And likewise my clumps of C. l. alba are behind the species but are in flowers now.
Paddy
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I think I will let my clumps continue to merge as the effect of blue flowers followed by white is quite nice.
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Anthony,
Will you go and do a bit of work and not be spending all your time on this forum.
Paddy
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Kids on exams so no teaching classes today as 4th - 6th year are on study leave.
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I'm sitting in school all on my own having my lunch. Everybody else has gone to the swimming pool.
Paddy
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Our lunch time is 12.55 - 1.55. Three pupils have turned up to give me grief - er, I mean go over some work.
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A neighbour about half a mile north of here had good colonies of Camassias in her garden which may have been from commercial hybrid stock. Thinking they did so well so close by, I tried some... they exist, they do not thrive! I live in hope of them gaining strength.
I saw yesterday that this friend's house ( she moved away some time ago) is up for sale.... remembering the Camassias, super old Daphne cneorum and other lovely plants she had, I searched out the details.....oh dear, very little of her charming garden remains, the bulb beds are grassed over......it is not only wild habitats that are at risk! :'(
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Anthony,
As is regularly said here: Teaching would be a great job except for the children.
Below, a photograph of a white-flowered camassia.
Paddy
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Or alternatively they could be a selected form of C. leichtlinii that has been established in the bulb trade specifically because of its ability to increase vegetatively?
There must be different selected forms,
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this is my white group, the tall spikes are Cammassia leichtlinii semi-plena, hopefully out soon.
Around them are the single 'Alba' form,
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some have dark anthers
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and some have light ones.
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It is interesting to see photos of some of the selected forms of Camassia leichtlinii. I find myself wondering if any of them might actually be the result of hybridization with other species, particularly Camassia cusickii, which is the species that has the strongest tendency to produce new bulbs by offsets.
I have a clump of Camassia cusickii in my garden, from purchased bulbs, here are some photos. Despite this being an Oregon endemic, I have not yet had a chance to see it in the wild, as it is a local endemic in NE Oregon, in a locality that is very much out off the beaten path. Hopefully one of these years I will make it out to Wallowa County when it is in flower.
Camassia cusickii is named for William C. Cusick, and important early plant collector in Oregon in the late 1800's and early 1900's, he has many plant species named after him, as well as the crucifer genus Cusickiella, a segregate of Draba.
Camassia cusickii is a nice plant, very robust with racemes of many flowers. The color is a light blue, not a real standout, and the display would probably be more effective in a larger planting.
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Camassia scilloides
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Hi, Peter, welcome!! Fermi tells us your garden is looking great and you have yet more projects planned.
Hope you and the family are all very well .
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With apologies,
I now realise that the photograph I posted as Camassia leichtlinnii 'Alba' is in fact Asphodoline albus.
Paddy
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I found these growing by the thousands along I-5 near Essex, Washington. They are quite short, no more than a foot tall. Can anyone ID them for me? Thanks.
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A Scilla maybe? If in such numbers, surely something native to Washington. I don't know if any scillas ARE.
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Camassia of some sort, but which?
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Gene's plants from Washington state are Camassia quamash, and best fit the ssp. azurea because of the light blue tepals. Ssp. azurea is endemic to a fairly small portion of the southern Puget Sound region and adjacent Olympic peninsula. Ssp. maxima, which also grows in western Washington, has tepals that are a darker purplish blue. Camassia leichtlinii ssp. suksdorfii also grows in that area but it is very local and grows only in wetter habitats. That particular locality, known as "Grand Mount Prairie", has some of the best remaining native prairie habitat in western Washington. It is a great place to visit in May and early June when the wildflowers are blooming.
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Ed, since you are obviously one of the locals, would you please tell me how to pronounce the name "Puget" correctly. I frequently come across it in American books about the area and am never sure.
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Around here, Puget is pronounced "pew-jet" or "pew-jit", with the emphasis on the first syllable. But since the sound is named after Peter Puget, an officer in the British navy in the late 1700's (on Vancouver's expeditions) I can only guess the "proper" pronounciation!
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Thanks Ed. I was sort of hoping for something vaguely French (Peu as in Peugeot) or Poo but am pleased it's not Pudge. Though perhaps it really should be, taking into account the British Naval Officer. :D
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You'll find a pronunciation here Lesley:http://www.answers.com/topic/puget-sound. Click on the wee speaker icon and you'll hear puget sound. ;) Like many English names, it looks as if it has a French origin?