Polemonium viscosum, known as sky pilot, skunkweed, sticky Jacobs-ladder, and sticky polemonium, is a flowering plant in the genus Polemonium native to western North America from southern British Columbia east to Montana and south to Arizona and New Mexico, where it grows at high altitudes on dry, rocky sites.
It is a perennial herbaceous plant growing tall, with pinnate leaves up to long with numerous small spoon-shaped leaflets 1.5–6 mm long and 1–3 mm broad. It has purple flowers long.
It is grown as an ornamental plant in rock gardens.
Taxonomy Polemonium viscosum was given its scientific name in 1848 by Thomas Nuttall. It is classified in the genus Polemonium as part of the Polemoniaceae family. The species has no accepted subspecies, but has two among its four synonyms.
Table of Synonyms Name Year Rank Notes Polemonium lemmonii 1907 species = het. Polemonium viscosum subsp. genuinum 1942 subspecies ≡ hom., not validly publ. Polemonium viscosum subsp. lemmonii 1942 subspecies = het. Polemonium viscosum f. leucanthum 1934 form = het. Notes: ≡ homotypic synonym; = heterotypic synonym
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