Allen Beasley and Bender, his neighbor’s friendly lab, look at the carpet of camas flowers Friday.
This is the time of year for camas plants to bloom, and Albany homeowner Allen Beasley has a fine view of a whole field of them. On Friday he invited me to take a look.
We’ve all heard about camas for years, for about as long as we’ve all been in Oregon. The roots of the plants or bulbs are famous as a food source for the indigenous people of this valley reaching far back into pre-history.
Every once in a while, archaeologists digging down below the valley floor still come up with the remnants of what they believe to be camas ovens, places were the bulbs were placed on hot rocks and covered with leaves to be cooked.
The online Oregon Encyclopedia has a page devoted to camas, and you can find it here. Check it out.
Beasley retired from a sales job for a nationwide potato chip and snack company. He lives at the western end of Southwest 36th Avenue. The lowest part of his yard is in the flood plain of Oak Creek, seemingly a perfect habitat for camas.
With their bright blue flowers the plants have been popping up in this place every spring for, probably, thousands of years. May they continue to do the same for eons to come. (hh)
Camas flowers behind the Beasley home in the flood plain of Oak Creek of west Albany.
This is a plant that is important to an understanding of North American human history, and particularly important to families that lived in the Willamette Valley above the Falls for hundreds of generations: http://www.orww.org/Native_Plants/Camas/
It is interesting that people of the North Umpqua grew a large cream-colored camas, while people on the Calapooia grew a large deep purple-colored camas. The appearance is as distinct as between Red Delicious and Yellow Transparent apples, or red and white roses. Question: was this a purposeful difference reflective of distinct communities?
Beautiful!
What a spot! And, thank you Mr. Zybach for the interesting notes! So beautiful.