California Jacob's ladder
Polemonium californicum Eastw.
Polemonium californicum is a flowering plant in the Polemoniaceae family, known as California Jacob's ladder. It is native to the northwestern United States and parts of Canada, including California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. This perennial herb grows in shady, moist environments such as mountain woodlands. It forms clumps with decumbent to erect stems reaching up to 50 cm in height.
Description
The plant has hairy, glandular stems and compound leaves up to 20 cm long, with leaflets that are oval to lance-shaped. The terminal leaflet is often fused to the adjacent pair. It produces a dense cluster of bell-shaped flowers, each up to 1.5 cm wide, with blue or purple petals and a yellow center. The flowers have a whitish tubular throat. The fruit is a capsule. The species was first described in 1904 by Eastwood.
Other common names
California Jacob's laddermoving polemonium
Distribution
California · Idaho · Nevada · Oregon · Washington · British Columbia
Synonyms
Polemonium tricolorPolemonium oreadesPolemonium oregonensePolemonium paddoensePolemonium pulcherrimum var. calycinumPolemonium columbianumPolemonium californicum subsp. columbianumPolemonium calycinumPolemonium californicum f. oreadesPolemonium californicum f. oregonensePolemonium californicum f. paddoensePolemonium pulcherrimum subsp. tricolor