Field Book of Western Wild Flowers

by Margaret Armstrong; J. J. Thornber

Field Morning-glory—C. arvensis.
Yellow Morning-glory—Convolvulus occidentalis.

PHLOX FAMILY. Polemoniaceae.

Not a large family, most abundant in western North America, a few in Europe and Asia; sometimes slightly woody; the leaves without stipules; the flowers generally regular; the calyx with five united sepals; the corolla with five united petals, rolled up in the bud and often remaining more or less twisted to one side in the flowers; the stamens with slender filaments, with swinging anthers, often unequally inserted, on the tube or throat of the corolla and alternate with its lobes; the ovary superior, with a slender style and three-lobed stigma, but in immature flowers the three branches are folded together so that the style appears to have no lobes; the pod with three compartments, containing few or many seeds, which are sometimes winged and sometimes mucilaginous.

There are a good many kinds of Polemonium, growing in cool places, usually perennials; the leaves alternate, with leaflets, not toothed; the calyx not ribbed or angled, bell-shaped; the corolla more or less bell-shaped; the stamens equally inserted, but often of unequal lengths; the seeds mucilaginous when wet. This is the Greek name, used by Dioscorides.

Jacob's Ladder
Polemònium occidentàle (P. coeruleum)
Blue
Summer
Northwest

A graceful plant, with attractive and unusual-looking foliage. The juicy stem and tender, bright green leaves are smooth or hairy and the pretty flowers are nearly three-quarters of an inch across, bright rather purplish blue, paler inside and delicately veined with blue, with a yellow "eye." The stamens are protruding, with white anthers, and the pistil is long and protruding, even in quite small buds. This is variable and grows in damp places in the mountains, across the continent and also in the Old World. The common name comes from the shape of the leaf and it is also called Greek Valerian. Another handsome sort is P. carnèum, with flowers varying in color from salmon to purple, growing in the mountains of California and Oregon, but rather rare.

Jacob's Ladder—Polemonium occidentale.

There are many kinds of Linanthus; low, slender annuals, with opposite, palmately-divided leaves and thus differing from Gilia, the divisions narrow or threadlike, looking almost like whorls in some kinds, or rarely toothless, occasionally some of the upper leaves alternate; the flowers scattered, or in terminal, roundish clusters; the calyx-tube thin and dry between the ribs or angles, the teeth equal; the corolla more or less wheel-shaped, funnel-form, or salver-form; the stamens equally inserted on the corolla; the seeds few or many, developing mucilage when moistened. The Greek name means "flax flower."