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 10–30 cm tall, with pinnate leaves up to 15 cm long with numerous small spoon-shaped leaflets 1.5–6 mm long and 1–3 mm broad. It has purple flowers 17–25 mm long. It is grown as an ornamental plant in rock gardens.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
⚠ sources differ — GIFT: herb · TRY: non-succulent
Woodinessnon-woody
Physiology & chemistry2
Photosynthetic pathwayC3
Specific leaf area (SLA)4.24 mm²/mg
03Chemical composition10 compounds
Compounds documented for Polemonium viscosum across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
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 viscosum has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens10
Marker genes4
eDNA detections9
Countries2
Marker genes sequenced
★ 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.
★matK★rbcLa★ITS★ITS2
plant barcodefungal barcode
06Genome at a glanceCCDB
The complete instruction manualPolemonium viscosum 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.
CCDB · book-ipcn67-71 — LOEVE, A, D. LOEVE, & B.M. KAPOOR. 1971. Cytotaxonomy of a century of Rocky Mountain orophytes. Arctic & Alpine Res. 3: 139-165.
CCDB · book-fedorov — Flory 1937a
n 91×CCDB · ipcn-api-dl
CCDB · ipcn-api-dl — Wilken, D. H. 1986. Chromosome Number Reports 93. Taxon 35: 899–900.
Ploidy records — measured levels and diploid/polyploid inferences · click for sources
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 origin3.67 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 671 records
Wild obs. + sensor1 579
Museum / vouchered1 091
Cultivated / captive1
Origin
Native1
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO4 708 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 accuracy87% within 1 km
≤100 m 898≤1 km 143≤10 km 106>10 km 55
1 202 georeferenced · 377 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor1 579
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 accuracy60% within 1 km
≤100 m 69≤1 km 311≤10 km 247>10 km 11
638 georeferenced · 453 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence1 091
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Coordinate accuracy
no georeferenced coordinates · 1 records without
Open the mapnot free-living1
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 institutions46 of 67 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
DOI/NPS, Colonial National Historical Parklocation not on record
111
Bronx, US
95
Denver, US
94
Moscow, US
93
Musee des Dinosaures d'Esperaza (Aude)location not on record
63
WTUlocation not on record
55
Logan, US
51
Pullman, US
50
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratorylocation not on record
44
Albuquerque, US
40
Wuzhou, CN
30
Bozeman, US
29
Flagstaff, US
29
Durango, US
25
Missoula, US
23
ASUlocation not on record
23
DOI/NPS, Greenbelt Parklocation not on record
16
Boise, US
16
Victoria, CA
15
Caldwell, US
12
Orem, US
12
Riverside, US
11
Pocatello, US
10
Claremont, US
10
Emporia, US
8
Vancouver, CA
8
University of Lethbridgelocation not on record
8
Corvallis, US
8
University of Stellenboschlocation not on record
7
Provo, US
6
University of Alberta Museumslocation not on record
5
Chongqing Museumlocation not on record
5
Bangkok, TH
4
Pittsburg, US
4
Chadron, US
3
Tampa, US
3
Fargo, US
3
GB
3
Saint Louis, US
3
Northridge, US
2
Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record
2
Dekalb, US
2
San Luis Obispo, US
2
San Francisco, US
2
Santa Barbara, US
2
Phoenix, US
2
CASlocation not on record
2
Long Beach, US
2
US
1
Chapel Hill, US
1
USFSlocation not on record
1
DOI/NPS, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Sitelocation not on record
1
Wlocation not on record
1
Weber State Universitylocation not on record
1
Bloomington, US
1
Canadian Department of Agriculturelocation not on record
1
Cslocation not on record
1
US
1
Angwin, US
1
Pacific Lutheran Universitylocation not on record
1
Ashland, US
1
Philadelphia, US
1
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznańlocation not on record
1
St. Paul, US
1
Green Bay, US
1
University of Guelph, OAC Herbariumlocation not on record
1
Tempe, US
1
67 institutions · 1 072 of 1 091 vouchered records shown · 15 without an institution code
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
09Environmental DNA9 detections
Where the DNA of Polemonium viscosum 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 found9
Studies independent surveys1
Countries2
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 9 detections have coordinates
Open the map2 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.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median12.5 °C 12.5–16.6
Seasonal swing summer↔winter27.0 °C
Max temp (day)18.4 °C 18.4–22.1
Min temp (night)8.20 °C 8.20–12.6
Precipitation79.6 mm/mo
Air humidity57.3 % 57.3–58.6
Moisture balance-38.4 mm/mo -47.9–-38.4
Vapour deficit733 Pa 733–839
Wind speed5.80 m/s 4.40–5.80
Cloud cover36.7 % 36.7–38.5
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 5 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
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 Foundation4 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 671 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI9 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics10 specimens↗
LOTUSNatural Products (Wikidata)compounds↗
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↗