page_title: Camassia quamash
section_title: Food use
hierarchical_section_title: Camassia quamash / Uses / Food use
caption_attribution_description: English: The fruits of Camassia quamash
context_page_description: Camassia quamash, commonly known as camas, small camas, common camas, common camash or quamash, is a perennial herb. It is native to western North America in large areas of southern Canada and the northwestern United States, from British Columbia and Alberta to California and east from Washington state to Montana and Wyoming.
context_section_description: The bulbs of Camassia species are edible and nutritious when roasted or boiled, but should not be confused with the toxic white-flowered meadow death-camas (which is not in Camassia, but part of the genus Toxicoscordion, which grows in the same areas); the bulbs are difficult to distinguish.
  Camas has been a food source for many native peoples in the western United States and Canada. After being harvested in the autumn, once the flowers have withered, the bulbs are pit-roasted or boiled. The latter produced a syrup. A pit-cooked camas bulb looks and tastes something like baked sweet potato, but sweeter, and with more crystalline fibers due to the presence of inulin in the bulbs—an oligosaccharide responsible for the copious flatulence caused by excessive consumption or consumption of undercooked bulbs. Bulbs can also be dried and pounded into flour, which can be used for baking or as a thickener. Native American tribes who ate camas include the Nez Perce, Cree, Coast Salish, Lummi, and Blackfoot tribes, among many others. Camas bulbs contributed to the survival of members of the expedition of Lewis and Clark (1804–06).
  Camas bulbs (and bannock made from them) are listed in the Ark of Taste.
caption: The fruits of C. quamash
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