The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Mertensia ciliata
Also called Chiming bells, Mountain Bluebells, Streamside Bluebells, Tall Chiming Bells, Shortstyle Bluebells, Tall Fringe Bluebells
Mertensia ciliata is a perennial wildflower of western North American mountain meadows and creeksides, forming large blue-green patches with fragrant bell-shaped blue flowers. It is best grown in cool, moist conditions, which is the key to keeping it healthy.
Mertensia ciliata is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common names mountain bluebell, tall fringed bluebells, and streamside bluebells.
It is native to the western United States. It grows throughout the southwestern US in the states of California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. It is also found in the northwest in Oregon and Idaho. It also is known from the Rocky Mountain states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. It is found as far east as South Dakota.
The flowers, young stems and leaves are edible raw; older leaves (when the plant tends to be hairy) should be cooked. The plant contains alkaloids so should not be eaten in high quantities.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mertensia ciliata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
