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Mertensia humilis
Mertensia humilis is a small perennial wildflower native to the sagebrush steppe and open woodlands of Wyoming and northern Colorado, valued for its crowded blue bell-shaped flowers. It is rare and listed as vulnerable, so it is best grown from ethically sourced seed or plants and kept cool and well drained, like its mountain home.
Mertensia humilis is a species of plant in the borage family that grows in areas of Wyoming and Colorado in the western United States. In 2023 the species was rated as vulnerable to extinction.
Most of the natural range of Mertensia humilis is in Wyoming extending north to south across Johnson, Natrona, Carbon, and Albany, counties. In Colorado it is only found in two northern counties, Larimer and Jackson. In Wyoming there are 40 known occurrences and 25 other places where it has become locally extinct. In Colorado there are five occurrences where the species has been recently observed and three more where they had not been seen in the 20 years prior to 2020. It grows at elevations of 2,000 to 2,800 meters (6,400 to 9,100 ft).
Beautiful bluebells · Tall fringed bluebells · Prairie bluebells · Small bluebells · Oysterleaf · Oblongleaf bluebells · Tall bluebells · Siberian Bluebells · Virginia bluebells · Bluebells
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mertensia humilis 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.
