Polemonium

This article is about the plant species, for the ancient city named Polemonium, see Fatsa.
Polemonium
Polemonium occidentale
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Polemoniaceae
Genus: Polemonium
L.
Type species
Polemonium caeruleum
L.
Species

See text.

Polemonium, commonly called Jacob's ladder, is a genus of between 25 and 40 species of flowering plants in the family Polemoniaceae, native to cool temperate to arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. One species also occurs in the southern Andes in South America. Many of the species grow at high altitudes in mountains. Most of the uncertainty in the number of species relates to those in Eurasia, many of which have been synonymized with P. caeruleum in the past.

They are perennial plants (rarely annual plants) growing 10–120 cm tall with bright green leaves divided into lance-shaped leaflets, and produce blue (rarely white or pink) flowers in the spring and summer.

Polemonium species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora polemoniella.

Species

Sources

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