I headed out with Derek Kite to look for, well…, whatever we could find. Certainly, we found mommy marmot, along with ground squirrels, birds and turtles, but the most striking things we ran across were wildflowers.
An interesting flower seen was camas. It reminded me of the Kootenay Camas Project launched by the Kootenay Native Plant Society. As the Society says:
Common camas, Camassia quamash, is a native perennial herb with edible bulbs in the lily family. The beautiful blue flowers grow in moist meadows and prairies in southern British Columbia and the northwestern United States. In the Columbia Basin of BC, camas is a rare find, restricted to low-elevation sites in the West Kootenay.
To locate and document camas is a worthy project. The first two pictures show some we found. These are followed by other wildflowers seen on this jaunt.
Two pictures of camas seen Sunday. They are, indeed, lovely.
We also saw mountain arnica,
smallflower woodland star,
what I think is (the blue-listed) Sutherland’s larkspur,
and finally some indian paintbrush.
Beautiful photos Alistair. And thank you for identifying them. Being somewhat new to the Kootenay I am still trying to identify the local flora
Jean
Hi!
Beautiful photos, and thanks for quoting our project.
If you remember where you saw the camas we would be delighted if you send us an email with directions to the site.
Eva