JACOB'S LADDER
|
 |
| File Size: 52 KB |
|
|
|
Polemonium reptans L. var. reptans
|
| Johnson County, Kansas |
| Perennial |
| Height: 6-30 inches, usually less than 16 inches |
| Family: Polemoniaceae - Polemonium Family |
| Flowering Period: April, May |
|
| Also Called: | | Creeping polemonium, greek valerian. | | Stems: | | 1-several, erect, ascending or spreading, at length reclining, slender, weak, branched, mostly glabrous. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, long-stalked below, nearly sesile above, pinnately compound; leaflets 3-17, ovate to lanceolate, 2/5 to 2.8 inches long, 1/5 to 4/5 inch wide; margins entire; tips pointed. | | Inflorescences: | | Cluster, few-flowered, loose, open, terminal. | | Flowers: | | Showy, 3/5 to 4/5 inch broad, stalked; calyx bell-shaped, 1/5 to 1/4 inch long, lengthening in fruit, 5-lobed, minutely hairy; lobes triangular; corolla bell-shaped, 2/5 to 3/5 inch long, 5-lobed, pale blue to violet with white center; stamens 5, about same height, shorter than or equaling corolla; filaments slender; style exceeding stamens; stigmas 3. | | Fruits: | | Capsule, egg-shaped to oblong, about 1/5 inch long, several-seeded, separating into 3 segments; seeds 5-7 per segment. | | Habitat: | | Moist, rocky wooded hillsides, alluvial soil near streams. | | Distribution: | | East 1/6 of Kansas. | | Origin: | | Native | | Uses: | | Native Americans took a compound containing the root as a diuretic and laxative. | | Comments: | | Jacob's ladder varies from glabrous to sparsely pubescent. Ladder alludes to the ladder-like appearance of the pinnate leaves. Even though it is sometimes know by the common name creeping polemonium, it does not creep. |
|
| Jacob's ladder |  | | 40 KB | | Johnson County, Kansas |
| | Jacob's ladder leaves |  | | 108 KB | | Johnson County, Kansas |
| | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
