A cluster of Common Camas (Camassia quamash) grows among the branches of a Garry Oak in a swale in the uplands at the wildflower site, Catherine Creek, Washington. A shaft of late afternoon sun lights the grass in the background. Camas grows best in locations that are very wet in the winter and dry in the summer.
A few hundred yards straight up from the parking lot at Catherine Creek there is a shallow depression in the rock that stretches laterally across the site. There is so little soil on this ground that in some places you can see broken rock through the foliage in this depression, where you might expect to find a bed of silt. Still, there is enough soil to support quite a bit of Camas here. Catherine Creek is one of the best places in the Pacific Northwest to view Camas when it's in bloom.
Ash Creek Images
Photographs of the West by Doug Gorsline
Camas Flowers Among Grasses and Branches at Catherine Creek, Washington.
