Polemonium reptans var. reptans

Native

Moist to moderate moisture. Meadows, woods. Full sun to shade.

May to June

Blue

8″ to 20″

This is a 8″ to 20″ tall, mostly erect, perennial forb that rises on a solitary stem or several loosely clustered or tufted stems from a taproot.

The stems are erect or sprawling, slender, hollow, green or reddish, usually hairless, and branching toward the top.

Basal leaves are on long leaf stalks. Stem leaves are alternate. Lower stem leaves are on short leaf stalks, upper stem leaves are stalkless. The principal leaves are pinnately divided into 7 to 17 leaflets.

The leaflets are stalkless, almost oppositely arranged, elliptic to egg-shaped, ¾″ to 1½″ long, and about ½″ wide. The upper surface is dull green and hairless. The lower surface is silvery-green and hairless. They have 3 prominent veins. The margins are untoothed.

The inflorescences are few-flowered branching clusters at the end of stems and branches and rising from the upper leaf axils. The cluster stalks (peduncles) are hairless and reddish green and are covered with short, appressed hairs.

The flowers are bell-shaped, ½″ to ⅝″ long, and about ½″ wide. They are on 3 ⁄16″ to ¼″ long stalks, the stalks at least as long as the sepals. There are 5 green sepals, 5 blue petals, and 5 stamens.

The fruit is a rounded, 3-chambered capsule with 1 to 10 seeds per chamber.

Western Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium occidentale ssp. lacustre) flowers in the summer, not the spring. The flower stalks are shorter than the sepals. In Minnesota it is found only in St. Louis County.