Derived from the native Indian name, quamash or camass.

Perennial. Rich alluvial soil, meadows, banks of streams, prairies. Pennsylvania to Minnesota, southward to Georgia and Kansas. Frequent in northern Ohio. April, May.

Bulb

Coated, oval, one to two inches long, dark in color.

Leaves

Narrow, keeled, shorter than the flowering scape.

Scape

One to two feet high, bearing a long loose raceme of pale violet-blue flowers with bracts longer than the pedicels.

Flowers

Perianth of six, equal, narrow, oblong divisions, widely spreading, half an inch or more in length, borne in a simple raceme, on jointed pedicels.

Wild Hyacinth. Quamasia hyacinthina

Stamens

Six, flaments threadlike inserted at the base of the perianth divisions.

Pistil

One; style threadlike; stigma three-lobed.

Capsule

Triangular-globose, three-celled; seeds black, roundish.

Camassia is a plant of the Middle West especially. It is found in northern Ohio among the high grass in low alluvial meadows, often giving in May a tint of pale violet-blue to considerable areas. The flowering raceme is frequently six to eight inches long and suggests the Hyacinth, whence its common name. The plant arises from a coated bulb.