Polemonium pulcherrimum
Hook. · speciesAt a glance
Sources12 archives
Databases and archives Polemonium pulcherrimum's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation3 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility4 521 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI24 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics30 specimens↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinesequences↗
GRIN TaxonomyUSDA-ARSdistribution & uses↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
CCDBChromosome Counts DB · Tel Aviv U.genome & karyotype↗
PloiDBPloidy Databasegenome & karyotype
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Polemonium pulcherrimum is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by several common names, including beautiful Jacob's-ladder, showy Jacob's-ladder, and skunk-leaved polemonium. It is native to western North America from Alaska and Yukon to Arizona and New Mexico, where it can be found in many types of mountain habitat, including alpine talus at high elevations. It is a common and widespread wildflower in several regions. It is a perennial herb producing a clump of several erect stem approaching a maximum height of 30 centimeters. The leaves are mostly basal, with smaller ones arranged along the stem. The leaves are made up of several pairs of lance-shaped to oval or round leaflets. The herbage is lightly hairy, densely glandular, sticky, and strongly scented, the odor reminiscent of skunk. The showy inflorescence is a dense elongated or headlike cluster of bell-shaped flowers each just under a centimeter wide. The flower is deep to bright or pale blue to nearly white with a yellow throat.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology7
Life cycle & reproduction5
Diet & foraging1
Habitat & environment7
Physiology & chemistry2
Other traits1
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 pulcherrimum has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ 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.
The complete instruction manual Polemonium pulcherrimum carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 185×CCDB · ipcn-api-dl · CCDB · book-ipcn67-71 · CCDB · book-fedorov
diploid inferred1×PloiDB · genus-scale
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
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.
Record type4 521 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
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.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions57 of 88 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Victoria, CA | 203 |
| Pullman, US | 186 |
| WTUlocation not on record | 67 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 46 |
| Denver, US | 30 |
| Vancouver, CA | 28 |
| University of Lethbridgelocation not on record | 26 |
| Chongqing Museumlocation not on record | 24 |
| Bozeman, US | 23 |
| Logan, US | 23 |
| University of Alberta Museumslocation not on record | 19 |
| Moscow, US | 16 |
| Arcata, US | 15 |
| Yukon Universitylocation not on record | 14 |
| Boise, US | 14 |
| Bronx, US | 14 |
| Anchorage, US | 11 |
| Tacoma, US | 11 |
| Davis, US | 10 |
| Provo, US | 10 |
| Missoula, US | 10 |
| Flagstaff, US | 9 |
| Whitehorse, CA | 9 |
| Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratorylocation not on record | 8 |
| Université Lavallocation not on record | 8 |
| Los Angeles, US | 8 |
| Angwin, US | 8 |
| Riverside, US | 8 |
| University of Stellenboschlocation not on record | 7 |
| Corvallis, US | 7 |
| Turlock, US | 6 |
| DOI/NPS, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Sitelocation not on record | 6 |
| DOI/FWS, Kenai National Wildlife Refugelocation not on record | 6 |
| Cheney, US | 6 |
| San Angelo, US | 5 |
| Fullerton, US | 5 |
| Bloomington, US | 5 |
| San Francisco, US | 5 |
| DOI/NPS, Mount Rainier National Parklocation not on record | 5 |
| St. Paul, US | 5 |
| Claremont, US | 5 |
| Grand Junction, US | 4 |
| Yellowstone National Park Herbariumlocation not on record | 4 |
| B.A. Bennett Herbariumlocation not on record | 4 |
| Bangkok, TH | 4 |
| MeiseBGlocation not on record | 4 |
| Musee des Dinosaures d'Esperaza (Aude)location not on record | 4 |
| Acadia Universitylocation not on record | 4 |
| Canadian Department of Agriculturelocation not on record | 3 |
| Saint Louis, US | 3 |
| Moscow State Universitylocation not on record | 3 |
| Orem, US | 3 |
| DOI/NPS, Colonial National Historical Parklocation not on record | 3 |
| Philadelphia, US | 3 |
| Durango, US | 2 |
| Pocatello, US | 2 |
| CASlocation not on record | 2 |
| Research Collection of B. A. Bennettlocation not on record | 2 |
| Portland, US | 2 |
| Berlin, DE | 1 |
| KNFHClocation not on record | 1 |
| Dekalb, US | 1 |
| Pittsburg, US | 1 |
| Paris, FR | 1 |
| San Diego, US | 1 |
| San Luis Obispo, US | 1 |
| IDElocation not on record | 1 |
| Long Beach, US | 1 |
| Caldwell, US | 1 |
| Durham, US | 1 |
| Portland, US | 1 |
| Montréal, CA | 1 |
| Universidade Federale do Rio Grande do Sullocation not on record | 1 |
| Weber State Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Taipei, TW | 1 |
| Tromso University Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
| Columbia, US | 1 |
| PRClocation not on record | 1 |
| AUAlocation not on record | 1 |
| Fort Worth, US | 1 |
| Edinburgh, GB | 1 |
| Kew, GB | 1 |
| Québec, CA | 1 |
| STUlocation not on record | 1 |
| Phoenix, US | 1 |
| TROMlocation not on record | 1 |
| Albuquerque, US | 1 |
| San Jose, US | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Polemonium pulcherrimum 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
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
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.