Taxonomy
Family: Polemoniaceae
Habitat
Moist woods.
Associates
Distribution
VT and Quebec, west to MN, south GA to TX.
Morphology
Stoloniferous, herbaceous perennial; stems villous, erect or decumbent at the base, to 50 cm. Leaves lance-ovate to oblong, acute but not sharply-pointed, without pale rounded margins. Flowers in loose and open cymes; corolla glabrous, pale blue to red-purple or white, to 3 cm wide; style short.
Notes
Flowers April to June.
Wetland indicator: Facultative Upland
Very tolerant of disturbance. Variety divaricata has corolla lobes notched at the tip and is more eastern, while var. laphamii A.W. Wood (image 2) has entire corolla lobes and is more western, and the range of these two varieties seem to overlap. Endangered in NJ. All photos except #2 by Marisa Murdock.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.
USDA, NRCS. 2002. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov).
National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
Michael Hough © 2009 |