Participant Info

Species

Mertensia ciliata [Pulmonaria ciliata]

Family

Boraginaceae

CommonName

tall fringed bluebell, mountain bluebell

Presence

YES

Status

native

EarliestDate

1911

LatestDate

2017

Ecosystem

montane, subalpine

Geobotanical

SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, San Juan

Passes

Cumbres, Elwood, La Manga, La Veta, Music, Stony, Wolf Creek

WildlifePreserves

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, 3 miles S of Grayback Mt 29 June 2017

Comments

Mertensia ciliata is common creek side in all mountain regions of the Watershed, occasionally reaching into the subalpine. It ranges mainly through the mountains of all USA states west of the Great Plains. BONAP shows it present as far south in the Rio Grande drainage as Sierra Co, New Mexico, but not farther down stream. Note that Ackerfield 2020 puts M. ciliata into the category of "Upper leaf surface with pustulate hairs" (couplet 2, p. 227), but as far as I know all authorities describe the upper leaf of the species as glabrous. It does have pustules (or "papillae"), a feature which distinguishes it from the equally common M. franciscana.

Annotation