About 13,000 years ago, the glaciers covering Vancouver Island slowly melted away after dominating the landscape for millennia.
Giving way to a pristine land, life began to sprout and abound. As the ice receded, bare land gave way to lush pine forests and juniper shrubs.
The first oaks are believed to have arrived on Vancouver Island over 10,000 years ago, likely carried by a lone, acorn-bearing branch drifting from the Olympic Peninsula, explained conservation biologist Matt Fairbarns.
Over the following centuries, the Garry oak ecosystem spread as far as Campbell River to the north and the Lower Mainland to the east. However, as the climate cooled, its distribution gradually shrank, now remaining in small pockets concentrated in the B.C.’s capital region.
As Fairbarns explained, Garry oak ecosystems became important to South Island First Nations, offering ideal hunting grounds and hosting a small, unassuming flower that was central to their diet: the camas.
“The Salish people would pit cook [the camas bulb] and that would convert the starches into an edible form, so it's a very useful plant for them,” said Fairbarns. “It became a center of [their] agricultural system.”
Fast forward to today, and for the past 14 years, Margaret Lidkea has invited residents of Greater Victoria and beyond to celebrate this little purple flower that plays a mighty role in the region’s ecosystem.
Held at Oak Bay’s Cattle Point, Camas Day gave attendees a chance to enjoy live music, take guided tours of nearby meadows in Uplands Park, and learn more about the plant on a sunny May 4.
“We're celebrating the beautiful camas flower as a symbol of all the beautiful wallflowers in this endangered Garry oak ecosystem,” said Lidkea. “We picked the camas because it's the most dominant one, but it's also culturally significant to the Lekwungen speaking people.”
Although camas itself isn’t endangered, its habitat is under threat.
Camas and other native flowers are vital, life-sustaining plants that serve as a primary food source for countless native insects, birds, and mammals.
As the pressure of urban development and climate change jeopardize the future of Canada’s last remaining Garry Oak ecosystem located in the region, Lidkea highlighted the importance of celebrating this conspicuous plant.
Something as simple as adding native plants, like camas, to one’s garden can help in creating a small safe haven in between parks and green space home to Garry oaks.
“It’s important that the whole community gets involved in looking after this ecosystem,” she said.
