Polemonium micranthum

Annual polemonium

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: annual · Native

Annual polemonium is a native annual herb found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California High Sierra, northern San Joaquin Valley, southeastern South Coast Ranges, northern Transverse Ranges, and Modoc Plateau in open, seasonally wet areas among shrubs at elevations of 600 to 1,800 meters. Flowering from April to June, this delicate plant produces light blue to white flowers in small clusters with bell-shaped corollas about 3 to 5 millimeters in diameter. Growing with soft-glandular hairy stems 5 to 25 centimeters tall, it ranges from decumbent to fully erect in growth habit. Its leaves are compound with 5 to 15 small lanceolate leaflets, each 2 to 7 millimeters long, arranged along stems that remain consistently sized from base to tip. The fruit is a small capsule 3 to 4 millimeters long containing up to 6 dark brown seeds.

Habitat: Open, seasonally wet areas, generally among shrubs

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 600-1800 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, n SNH, s SnJV, se SCoRO, n WTR, MP

California counties: Lassen, Modoc, Kern, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Plumas, Placer, Shasta, Alpine, Sierra, Ventura, Trinity

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