Polemonium occidentale

Great polemonium

Family: Polemoniaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Great polemonium is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, southern Sierra Nevada, eastern Sierra Nevada, and Warner Mountains in moist meadows and streamside habitats at elevations of 900 to 3,300 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces purple to blue flowers in open clusters, with bell-shaped blossoms 10 to 17 millimeters in diameter. Growing with erect stems 40 to 100 centimeters tall, it features glandular-hairy upper stems and a short, thin rhizome. Its compound leaves have 15 to 23 lanceolate leaflets, each 8 to 45 millimeters long, arranged along stems that become progressively smaller toward the top of the plant. The fruit is small, measuring 3 to 5 millimeters long with up to 10 dark brown seeds.

Habitat: Moist areas, meadows, streambanks

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: 900-3300 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SN, SnBr, SNE, Wrn

California counties: Mono, San Bernardino, Tulare, Fresno, Nevada, Tehama, Madera, Inyo, Placer, El Dorado, Butte, Kern, Alpine, Sierra, Lassen, Tuolumne, Modoc, Siskiyou, Plumas

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