In the midst of an intense period of garden construction, our Camassia bulb decided it was time to start flowering. This is a Californa native species native to open meadows. We’ve found it growing along the coast and in the Sierras, so the species appears quite adaptable as far as climate goes. We’ll see how well it does in our soil and hot summer. If all goes great, it will reseed and spread through the meadow. If all goes well, the plant will grow and we can eventually divide the bulbs. Or, it may simply vanish.
I found three bulbs at the local hardware store on a close out table. What? An uncommon native bulb in a hardware store? Well, at least the price is good – so if the bulbs are past their prime it wont’ be a huge monetary loss. And if they grow, it will definitely be worth it. The meadows where this plant grows tend to be seasonally wet, so we planted the bulbs in the rain garden. One of the three bulbs appeared but the others were never seen again.
Camassia bulbs are edible, and were eaten by many Native American tribes. I’m leaving ours in the ground – it was enough trouble finding it, and I have potatoes in the vegetable garden if I really want to dig up roots and tubers for consumption. The tricky part about harvesting these things in the wild is that there is also a plant known as Death Camas (Zigadenus), which looks remarkably similar to the edible species.
For botany geeks and other lovers of plant related trivia, it appears that this plant might be in the Agavaceae. Yes, that’s the same family as the Century Plant, Maguey, Blue Tequila Agave. Looks like they might have similar DNA.