Camassia howellii

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Monocots
Ordo: Asparagales

Familia: Asparagaceae
Subfamilia: Agavoideae
Genus: Camassia
Species: Camassia howellii
Name

Camassia howellii S.Watson (1990)
Synonyms

Homotypic
Quamasia howellii (S.Watson) Coville, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 11: 65. 1898.

Distribution
Native distribution areas:
Camassia howellii

Continental: Northern America
Regional: Mexico
SW. Oregon (Jackson Co., Jesephine Co.)

References: Brummitt, R.K. 2001. TDWG – World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, 2nd Edition
References

Watson, S. 1890: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 25: 135.

Links

Govaerts, R. et al. 2019. Camassia howellii in World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2019 Jan. 07. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2019. Camassia howellii. Published online. Accessed: Jan. 07 2019.
The Plant List 2013. Camassia howellii in The Plant List Version 1.1. Published online. Accessed: 2019 Jan. 07.
Tropicos.org 2019. Camassia howellii. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published online. Accessed: 07 Jan. 2019.

Vernacular names
English: Howell's camas

Camassia howellii, commonly known as Howell's camas, is a species of perennials endemic to western Oregon.[2]

Discovered in 1889, Camassia howellii is now considered to be imperiled due to residential development, mining and grazing.[3]

Distribution
Map of distribution

Camassia howellii is found exclusively in the southwestern region of Oregon. The 12 populations make up a total of 3000 plants. These sites are threatened by human developments. This species is currently under the global conservation status rank G2 Imperiled.[4] Although other species of Camassia are still abundant in the Northwest, this one is not in Oregon.

Camassia howellii thrives in wet meadows in serpentine soil. They are found in eastern Oregon where precipitation levels range from 70 to 100 inches per year and temperatures from 40 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit per year. These perennials are late bloomers usually during the month of May and the flowers will wither in the autumn.[5]
Description

Camassia howellii grows from a bulb and has 60 cm long basal leaves which range around 4 to 7 per plant.

The plant's inflorescences reach about 15 to 40 cm (6 to 15.5 in) long which are usually bluish violet. The flowers are actinomorphic made up of five 20 mm (0.79 in) long petals. There can be 100 flowers in a raceme. These flowers sit atop a stem about 50 cm (19.5 in) tall.[3] The flowers are radially symmetrical and are composed of five deep bluish violet petals. The petals range from 10 to 20 mm long and about 3 to 5 mm wide.[6] This species is known to bloom in the month of May.
Uses

Native Americans and settlers considered Camassia howellii as an important part of their diet. The city of Camas in Washington and many parts of the Northwestern United States was named after this plant due to its large cultivation and consumption by the Native Americans and first white settlers.

In autumn the bulbs were harvested after the flowers dried up and were boiled or pit-cooked.[7] The bulbs were also dried and ground into flour. As the settlers began to expand their territory, they raised cattle which limited the growth of camas in the area.
References

The Plant List, Camassia howellii S. Watson
Integrated Taxonomic Information System-ITIS Standard Report Page: Camassia howellii
NatureServe. 2014. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 7.1. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available http://explorer.natureserve.org. (Accessed: May 3, 2014 )
Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
Knight, Linda. Seevers, Joan. 1992. "Special Status Plants of the Medford District BLM". Bureau of Land Management, Medford OR. http://soda.sou.edu/Data/Library1/021106c1.pdf Archived 2014-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
Barkley, Theodore. Flora of North America Camassia howellii
Gould, Frank W. A Systematic Treatment of the Genus Camassia Lindl". The University of Notre Dame, Vol.28, No. 3, Nov., 1942, p. 712-742. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2420901