Polemonium chartaceum

Mason's sky pilot, Mason's Sky Pilot

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.3

Mason's sky pilot is a rare (CNPS 1B.3) California native perennial found in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, specifically in the Sweetwater and White Mountains, on rocky slopes and talus at elevations of 2,600 to 4,200 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces blue to purple flowers in heads with a funnel-shaped corolla and a limb 5 to 12 millimeters in diameter. Growing with erect, hairy stems less than 20 centimeters tall that are slightly purple, it forms a dense cespitose clump with a short rhizome. Its basal leaves have 15 to 25 small leaflets, each deeply 3 to 5-lobed and less than 4 millimeters long, with membranous sheathing leaf bases. The fruit is approximately 4 millimeters long and contains up to 6 brown seeds.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, talus

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 2600-4200 m

Bioregions: SNE (Sweetwater Mountains, White Mountains).

California counties: Mono, Nevada, Siskiyou, Inyo, Trinity

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