Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Lamiales

Family: Boraginaceae -- borage

Common Name: long-flowered bluebells, small bluebells

Species Code: MELO4

Origin: Native to sunny, open places that have moisture in the early spring from shrub-steppe to open pine forests mostly east of the Cascade Mountains from British Columbia to California and east to Nevada and western Montana.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a shallow, thickened, tuber-like root, stems few, simple, 5-25 cm tall, glabrous or strigose, easily detached from root.

Mature height: 2-10 inches

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: basal leaves often lacking, (when present, elliptic, petiolate); cauline leaves few, reduced below, alternate, entire, mostly sessile, 2-6 cm long, tip rounded or obtuse.

Flowers: inflorescence congested, terminal, many-flowered; calyx 3-6 mm long; corolla, tubular, funnelform, blue, 5 lobed, 15-25 mm long, inside of tube glabrous.

Flower color: blue/purple

Bloom: April, May

Bloom starts on: early April

Bloom ends on: late May

Fruit: nutlets in clusters of 4, wrinkled, 2-2.5 mm long, brown.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
M. pulchella and M. horneri in Piper & Beattie 1914.
Perennating organ is a thickened tuber-like root.
n=6 (University of British Columbia 2003).
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a nutlet.

Sun requirement: prefers full sun but tolerates some partial light shade

Soil moisture: mesic

Sowing time: probably fall

Transplant time: fall or early spring

Stratification: probably needs lengthy cold moist stratification

Seed yield: information not available

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: information not available

Seed cleaning: information not available

Planting duration: moderate

Seed insect problem: information not available

Seed shatter: information not available

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: information not available.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Keywords: upland native perennial forb

Alternate Species: pulchella, horneri

Propagation:
No information is available but seed probably needs long stratification. Try fall sowing for early spring germination.
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Mertensia longiflora has pretty blue flowers on short, stocky plants. Blooms early in the season, then goes dormant. Should be a good garden plant. Probably needs stratification and cool growing conditions. Common names include long-flowered bluebells, long-flowered Mertensia, trumpet lungwort (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Press of the New Era Printing Company, Lancaster, PA. 296 pp.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium