Polemonium californicum is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common names moving polemonium, low Jacob's-ladder, and California Jacob's ladder. It is native to the northwestern United States, where it grows in shady and moist habitat, such as mountain woodlands. It is a hairy, glandular rhizomatous perennial herb forming clumps of several decumbent to erect stems 30 to 50 centimeters in maximum height. The leaves are up to 20 centimeters long and are compound, made up of several pairs of oval to lance-shaped leaflets. The leaflet at the tip of the leaf is often fused to the pair behind it. The inflorescence is a crowded cluster of bell-shaped flowers each up to 1.5 centimeters wide. The flower is blue or purple with a yellow center and a whitish tubular throat. The fruit is a capsule.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Polemonium californicum has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens6
Marker genes3
GenBank sequences7
eDNA detections6
Countries1
The DNA barcodea real sequence read deposited for this species
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★matK1★ITS6★ITS2
plant barcodefungal barcode
07Deep time~2.03 Ma lineage
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
DNA clock origin2.03 Ma TimeTree
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
DNA clock origin
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type2 326 records
Wild obs. + sensor1 593
Museum / vouchered733
Origin
Native6
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO4 244 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy89% within 1 km
≤100 m 866≤1 km 157≤10 km 80>10 km 51
1 154 georeferenced · 439 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor1 593
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy66% within 1 km
≤100 m 60≤1 km 288≤10 km 167>10 km 15
530 georeferenced · 203 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence733
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions37 of 47 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Moscow, US
164
Corvallis, US
143
Pullman, US
55
WTUlocation not on record
47
Boise, US
32
Caldwell, US
29
Claremont, US
20
DOI/NPS, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Sitelocation not on record
17
Angwin, US
15
Davis, US
14
DOI/NPS, Mount Rainier National Parklocation not on record
14
Ashland, US
13
ASUlocation not on record
10
Riverside, US
10
Pocatello, US
9
Arcata, US
8
Wuzhou, CN
8
Provo, US
8
CASlocation not on record
7
Santa Barbara, US
7
Fredericton Stock Culture Collectionlocation not on record
5
San Francisco, US
5
Logan, US
4
Portland, US
4
San Jose, US
4
Flagstaff, US
4
Vancouver, CA
2
Irvine, US
2
US
2
Northridge, US
2
Truckee, US
2
Missoula, US
2
Albuquerque, US
1
Bangkok, TH
1
Bloomington, US
1
KNFHClocation not on record
1
EL PASO, US
1
Long Beach, US
1
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznańlocation not on record
1
Henderson, US
1
Musee des Dinosaures d'Esperaza (Aude)location not on record
1
Saint Louis, US
1
San Diego, US
1
University of Stellenboschlocation not on record
1
Philadelphia, US
1
Dekalb, US
1
Fullerton, US
1
47 institutions · 683 of 733 vouchered records shown · 50 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA6 detections
Where the DNA of Polemonium californicum was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found6
Studies independent surveys1
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 6 detections have coordinates
Open the map0 countries0
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation1 languages↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 326 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI6 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics6 specimens↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinesequences↗
GRIN TaxonomyUSDA-ARSdistribution & uses↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗