Mertensia virginica

Native

Moist to wet. Woods, river bottoms.

May to June

Blue

12″ to 26″

This is a 12″ to 26″ tall, erect to ascending, perennial forb that rises on usually multiple stems from a caudex. It often forms colonies.

The stems are fragile, fleshy, leafy, hairless, and branching near the top.

The leaves are alternate, elliptic to egg-shaped with the attachment at the wide end or inversely egg-shaped with the attachment at the narrow end, 2″ to 6″ long, and up to 4⅓″ wide. They are hairless and have a soft, floppy texture. Lower leaves taper at the base to a winged leaf stalk up to 6″ long. Upper leaves are on a shorter stalk and have rounded tips. The uppermost leaves are greatly reduced in size and are attached to the stem without a leaf stalk. The margins are untoothed.

The inflorescence is is a small, branched cluster at the end of the stems. The cluster is on a hairless stalk.

The flowers are trumpet-shaped, ¾″ to 1″ long. There are 5 petals that are purplish pink when in bud, gradually turning light blue as they unfold. They are fused at the base into a tube that flares outward at the tip with 5 shallow lobes. The tube is longer than the expanded portion of the corolla (limb). The individual flowers are never subtended with leafy bracts.

The fruit is 4 wrinkled nutlets.

Tall bluebells (Mertensia paniculata var. paniculata) is a taller, hairy, never colonial plant with smaller flowers. It reaches up to 40″ in height. The stems may be hairy. The leaves are hairy on both surfaces. Stem leaves have pointed tips. The flowers are ⅓″ to ½″ long. The corolla tube is 1.2 to 1.6 times as long as the tube.