Mertensia ciliata

Mertensia ciliata is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common names tall fringed bluebells, mountain bluebells, and streamside bluebells.

Mertensia ciliata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Boraginales
Family: Boraginaceae
Genus: Mertensia
Species:
M. ciliata
Binomial name
Mertensia ciliata
(James ex Torr.) G.Don

Distribution

It is native to the western United States, in California, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon. It often grows in moist habitat, such as subalpine meadows and creeksides. It often carpets large areas of meadow and hillside with blue-green foliage and sweet-scented bluebell blooms.[1]

Description

Mertensia ciliata is a perennial herb producing a cluster of erect stems from a thick, branching caudex. The leafy stems reach well over a meter in maximum height. The veiny leaves are oval to lance-shaped and pointed.

The inflorescence is an open array of many clustered blue bell-shaped flowers each between 1 and 2 centimeters long. The hanging, fragrant flower is tubular, expanding into a wider, lobed mouth. The flowers and leaves are edible.[2] As the individual flowers progress in age they change in color from blue to pink-red.[3]

The flowers bear poricidal anthers and are fertilized via buzz-pollination by several Bombus species. Primary Nectar robbing by Bombus species, including Bombus occidentalis is common in some populations.

gollark: Factorio tip: trees must die, so use grenades.
gollark: And what is ”that”?
gollark: Well, I just left, see?
gollark: I don't know...
gollark: "I don't get it dude, he was doing so fine, participating in conversations and being reasonable and civilizedthen middy started talking and he went full retard mode"

References
  1. Southwest Colorado Wildflowers Archived 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Montana Plant Life
  3. Barker, Joan. The Ultimate Guide to Wild Flowers of North America, page 249. Parragon. 2013.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.