The Common Camas can be identified by its grass-like leaves growing from the base of the plant and tall flower stalks with clusters of blue to purple, six-petaled flowers. The bulbs produced by Common Camas and its cousin, Giant Camas, were an important food source for native people. They would steam the bulbs for one to three days breaking down the complex carbohydrates into sugar fructose. They would then dry the cooked bulbs and grind them into a meal. The meal would then be mixed with water to form a batter and cooked like a pancake or formed into large bricks and then booked and stored for later use.
The Common Camas can be easily confused with the Death Camas which have deadly poisonous bulbs. The Death Camas have a white flower and blooms a couple of weeks later than a Common Camas. Do not eat camas bulbs unless you can absolutely distinguish between the Common and Death Camas.
