Showy Jacob's Ladder

Top 3 in a Challenge in Endangered or Vulnerable Plants – November 5, 2009

Polemonium, commonly called Jacob’s ladder, is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the family Polemoniaceae, native to cool temperate to arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and also in the southern Andes in South America. Many of the species grow at high altitudes in mountains.

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.
Although some populations contain hundreds or thousands of plants, many are tiny, and they are often threatened by road maintenance, changes in water level due to human or beaver activity, grazing, and recreational activities, such as ATV use. They may also be threatened by succession from fairly open to more closed habitats.

Photographed in Dawson City, Yukon
Canon EOS 50D; Canon 17-85mm lens