Mertensia longiflora

Long bluebells

Family: Boraginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.2

Long bluebells is a rare (CNPS 2B.2) California native perennial found in the Modoc Plateau in open, spring-moist places with sagebrush or sparse ponderosa-pine forest at elevations of 1,500 to 2,200 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces blue to lavender flowers in dense panicle-like clusters with delicate tubular corollas 15 to 25 millimeters long. Growing with one to two slender stems generally less than 40 centimeters tall that are easily detached from a tuber-like root, it develops few cauline leaves that are typically sessile and elongated. Its leaves are characteristically narrow, generally 1.5 to 4 times longer than wide with obscure lateral veins, and range from glabrous to slightly strigose. The plant's delicate flowers feature a corolla tube significantly longer than the calyx, with wide filaments extending beyond the anthers.

Habitat: Open, generally spring-moist, drying places of plains, foothills, especially with sagebrush or sparse ponderosa-pine forest

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 1500-2200 m

Bioregions: MP

California counties: Modoc, Lassen, Tulare

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.