It is native to western North America in large areas of southern Canada and the northwestern United States.

The bulbs do not frequently cluster together and their surface is black while the interior is white with layers like that of an onion.

[11] The flowering stems in wild or cultivated plants can be up to 80 centimeters (2.6 ft), but may be as short as 20 cm (8 in).

[13] The bulbs are or were harvested and pit-roasted or boiled by women of the Nez Perce,[8] Cree, and Blackfoot tribes.

In the Great Basin, expanded settlement by whites accompanied by turning cattle and hogs onto camas prairies greatly diminished food available to native tribes and increased tension between Native Americans and settlers and travelers.

It will grow in lightly shaded forest areas and on rocky outcrops as well as in open meadows or prairies.

The bulbs of this Camassia species are edible and nutritious when roasted or boiled,[23] but are easily confused with those of the death-camas.

[14][13] Camas has been a food source for many native peoples in the western United States and Canada.

[25] A pit-cooked camas bulb looks and tastes something like baked sweet potato, but sweeter, and with more crystalline fibers due to the presence of inulin in the bulbs—an oligosaccharide responsible for the copious flatulence caused by excessive consumption of undercooked bulbs.