pun’hwe’num’ – is the term we use in Stz’uminus for the month of May. This is named for speenhw “blue camas” [Camassia leichtlinii (Baker) S. Wats. and/or C. quamash (Pursh) Green. Some Elders say tum’peenhw – tum’ – time of camas, or tum’pe’un’hw – time of getting camus. This was an important starch food for our people. It was gathered from island bluffs and high fields and baked, steamed or roasted. It has a sweet taste similar to marshmallows. There were strict rules about who could harvest where and when. And our ladies tended the camas plots to make sure that they thrived. The dried camas would be put away in the winter box and used in soups during the winter time, along with wild onions, and wapato.
Roxanne Seymour from shtsum’inus on camas
Featured Plant
qw’aqwuqw | Bladderwrack Kelp
Bladderwrack kelp is a widespread olive-green to yellowish-green seaweed (alga) that occurs, often in thick patches, upon rocks in the lower to middle intertidal zones from Alaska to California. This kelp has a flattened, erect and somewhat rigid body that is regularly dichotomously (into twos) branched. During its reproductive phase, this kelp produces swollen receptacles at the tips of the branches, where the reproductive cells are produced.