Polemonium eximium

Showy sky pilot

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Showy sky pilot is a California native perennial found in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains on rocky outcrops and talus slopes at elevations of 3,000 to 4,200 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces striking blue to purple flowers in dense heads with a funnel-shaped corolla 9 to 15 millimeters in diameter. Growing with clustered, erect stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall and covered in glandular hairs, it forms dense clumps from a rhizomatous base. Its basal leaves are 4 to 13 centimeters long with 20 to 35 small leaflets that are deeply 3 to 5-lobed, creating a delicate, finely divided foliage. The compact clusters of blue-purple flowers and its high-elevation alpine habitat make this sky pilot a distinctive alpine wildflower.

Habitat: Rocky outcrops, talus

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 3000-4200 m

Bioregions: c&amps SNH.

California counties: Inyo, Fresno, Tulare, Tuolumne, Mono, Mariposa, Madera

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