''Polemonium californicum'' is a species of flowering plant in the
phlox family known by the common names moving polemonium,
low Jacob's-ladder, and California Jacob's ladder. It is native to the northwestern United States, where it grows in shady and moist habitat, such as mountain woodlands. It is a hairy, glandular
rhizomatous
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
perennial herb forming clumps of several decumbent to erect stems 30 to 50 centimeters in maximum height. The leaves are up to 20 centimeters long and are compound, made up of several pairs of oval to lance-shaped leaflets. The leaflet at the tip of the leaf is often fused to the pair behind it. The
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
is a crowded cluster of bell-shaped flowers each up to 1.5 centimeters wide. The flower is blue or purple with a yellow center and a whitish tubular throat. The fruit is a capsule.
References
External links
Jepson Manual TreatmentBurke Museum ProfilePhoto gallery
californicum
Flora of North America
{{Polemoniaceae-stub