[Photo. Students in restoration ecology class at Washington State University working on propagation planters for camas bulbs and other native plants in the WSU Arboretum.]

Restoring Camas Flowers on a Campus Landscape

This fall, students in restoration ecology continued work on a renovated garden area in the WSU Arboretum & Wildlife Conservation Center. In summer, a student work crew began renovating garden plots to restore a camas garden and two pollinator gardens in the arboretum. Now that fall and cool weather have arrived, students are beginning to plant more than 2,000 camas bulbs of Common Camas (Camassia quamash), Cusick's Camas (C. cusickii), and Great camas (C. leichtlinii).

About half of the bulbs are being planted in a garden plot dedicated to a living display of camas in spring, while the rest of the bulbs will be planted in a seasonally wet meadow in the central basin of the WSU Arboretum used for restoration of Palouse Prairie native plants.

For pictures of camas flowers blooming in the arboretum and continuing stories on progress in our gardens, see our science blog:

Nature @ WSU