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Polemonium pulcherrimum
Also called Pretty Jacob's Ladder, Short Jacob's Ladder, Showy Jacob's Ladder, Showy Polemonium, Beautiful Jacob's Ladder, Pretty Jacobs Ladder, Skunkleaf Polemonium
Polemonium pulcherrimum is a low perennial wildflower of mountain and northern habitats, forming clumps of erect stems with blue-violet flowers and strongly skunk-scented, sticky foliage. It is grown in cool gardens and rock gardens rather than as a warm-climate plant.
Polemonium pulcherrimum is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by several common names, including beautiful Jacob's-ladder, showy Jacob's-ladder, and skunk-leaved polemonium. It is native to western North America from Alaska and Yukon to Arizona and New Mexico, where it can be found in many types of mountain habitat, including alpine talus and rock cracks at high elevations. It is a common and widespread wildflower in several regions. It is a perennial herb producing a clump of several erect stem approaching a maximum height of 30 centimeters. The leaves are mostly basal, with smaller ones arranged along the stem. The leaves are made up of several pairs of lance-shaped to oval or round leaflets. The herbage is lightly hairy, densely glandular, sticky, and strongly scented, the odor reminiscent of skunk.
Showy polemonium is native to the far eastern parts of Asia and to northwestern North America. In Asia it grows in Yakutiya (the Sakha Republic), Khabarovsk Krai, and Magadan Oblast in eastern Russia. In North America it is native to Alaska, the Yukon, and Northwest Territories in the far north. Further south in Canada it is found in British Columbia and Alberta. In the western United States it grows in both the southwest and northwest from the Pacific states to as far east as New Mexico and Montana.
Tall Jacob's-ladder · Northern Jacob's-ladder · Brandegee's Jacob's-ladder · Jacob's Ladder · Moving polemonium · Royal Jacob's-ladder · Mason's Jacob's-ladder · Rocky Mountain Jacob's-ladder · Mount Eddy Jacob's-ladder · Elegant Jacob's-ladder · Skypilot · Towering Jacob's-ladder
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Polemonium pulcherrimum 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.
