Elegant spires covered with masses of star-shaped purple-blue flowers with glittering yellow anthers. This is a larger species than C. quamash. Native from BC to southern California. Meadows, prairies and hillsides that are moist, at least in early spring. Note Author: Gary Lewis, Phoenix Perennials

General:
Perennial herb from a deep, egg-shaped bulb 2-4 cm long; flowering stems 20-100 cm tall, smooth.

Leaves:
Basal leaves several to numerous, linear-lanceolate and grass-like, to 60 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, smooth, sheathing at the base, the margins entire; stem leaves lacking.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a terminal raceme of 5 to many, stalked flowers, the stalks 1-4 cm long, spreading in flower, spreading to ascending in fruit; flowers pale to deep blue, rarely white, of 6 similar, distinct tepals, the tepals 20-40 mm long, 5-10 mm wide, twisting together over the ovaries when withered; stamens 6; pistil 1, 3-chambered.

Fruits:
Capsules, egg-shaped to oblong, cross-ridged, 1-2.5 cm long; fruiting stalks often longer than bracts, spreading to ascending, curved in towards stem; seeds several to many, shiny black, 2-4 mm long.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Camassia leichtlinii
Camassia leichtlinii var. suksdorfii (Greenm.) C.L. Hitchc.
Camassia suksdorfii Greenm.