More than a flower

This time of year in the Willamette Valley, we can witness the deep blue blossoms of the lily known in the Native American language Chinuk Wawa as “lakamas,” to scientists as Camassia quamash, and by its English common name, camas (1).

Camas flowers are strikingly beautiful, either alone or in large fields where the mass of blue is sometimes mistaken for an azure lake. 

But what makes camas one of our most culturally important plants is the nutritious bulb, which has provided sustenance and wealth to the Native people of this region for tens of thousands of years.

Camas thrives in areas of full sunlight such as prairies or savannas, especially after disturbance. In Native tradition that disturbance takes the form of two main practices: burning and hand digging.

Burning purifies the soil, releases nutrients and controls competing (often invasive) vegetation; traditional digging sticks gently till and aerate the soil, and small bulblets are replanted during this practice. 

In many areas, camas has been an extremely important staple food for Native peoples. The main source of its high nutrient value is a sugar called inulin, which is neither very digestible nor palatable in its natural state.

When slow-cooked, however, inulin breaks down into its component sugars, giving cooked camas a flavor some say is reminiscent of a baked pear.

Native people traditionally cooked camas in large earth ovens or pits. Fire-heated rocks were placed in the oven and then lined with leaves of skunk cabbage, maple or ash. The raw camas bulbs were placed on the leaves, then covered with another layer of leaves and then earth. Upon retrieval from the oven one to three days later, the camas could be eaten immediately, dried for later use, or pressed into cakes.

These cakes were highly valued as a portable food that could be easily stored for the winter or carried while traveling; they were traded extensively by bands of the Chinook, Kalapuya and Molalla tribes, and other people throughout the Northwest.

Camas is still eaten by Tribal people today. While the species itself is not considered endangered, many of its native habitats are indeed imperiled, mainly due to development and invasive species.

In the highly industrialized Portland Harbor, the Trustee Council is planning restoration projects to bring camas and other culturally significant plants back into the landscape. 

You can help native habitats by getting involved with the organizations (many are Intertwine partners) that protect and restore them. And you can experience camas visually by getting out to one of our region’s natural areas and looking for that telltale indigo-colored bloom.

(1) There are many species of plants known by the common name “camas” or some variant that are native to the Willamette Valley, including the deadly poisonous white-flowered “death camas” (Zygadenus venenosus), but this post focuses on the “common camas,” also known as “early camas” among other common names.

• Archuleta, Greg. “Camas,” unpublished article. Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, 2008.
• Pojar, Jim, and MacKinnon, Andy. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, pp. 108-109. Lone Pine Publishing, 2004.
• Thorsgard, Eirik, Harrelson, David, et al. “Public Plant List for Tualatin Area,” Tribal document for distribution. Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Cultural Protection Program, 2011.