Single Record

Participant Info

Species
Polemonium viscosum
Family
Polemoniaceae
CommonName
sky pilot, skunkweed
Presence
YES
Status
native
EarliestDate
1911
LatestDate
2018
Ecosystem
montane, subalpine, tundra
Geobotanical
SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos
Counties
Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta, San Juan
Passes
Elwood, Grayback, Gunsight, Music, Stony, Slumgullion
WildlifePreserves
Wheeler
Other Localities
Comments
Along with Polemonium pulcherrimum, P. viscosum is the most commonly collected Jacob's-ladder in the Watershed. In contrast to P. pulcherrimum, sky pilot's habitat is open meadows and slopes, usually in the tundra. The specimens collected from the Rio Grande drainage of northern New Mexico (Taos and Santa Fe counties) mark the southeastern corner of its USA distribution. Note that Allred et al. (2020) examined many specimens of P. confertum and P. viscosum from southern Colorado and New Mexico and found that the New Mexico vouchers were intermediate between the two species and that "Most of the plants from southern Colorado called confertum [also] belonged to such intermediates and could easily be referred to viscosum."