Mertensia virginica - (image 1 of 6)
Taxonomy
Family: Boraginaceae
Habitat
Mesic woods and wooded flood plains.
Associates
Often with Acer saccharum
Distribution
NY, MA, south to GA, west MN to AR.
Morphology
Herbaceous, leafy, glabrous perennial to 70 cm. Cauline leaves elliptic to oblanceolate, base long-tapering on lower leaves; upper leaves rounded at the base and sessile. Flowers tubular, in terminal cymes; corolla blue, to 2.5 cm long.
Notes
Flowers late March to late May
Wetland indicator: FACW
In very large populations some occasional plants with pink or white flowers can sometimes be found as shown in the last two images.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of
Northeastern United States
and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.
USDA, NRCS. 2002.
The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov).
National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
|
Michael Hough © 2005 |