Leafy Bluebells, Prairie Mertensia, Bugle Lungwort, Oblong Bluebells, Sagebrush Bluebells

Also known as sagebrush bluebells, leafy bluebells is an attractive, perennial wildflower with several to many erect stems from 10-40 cm high from a stout branching base that is covered with old leaf bases. The stems are glabrous while the leaves are covered with straight, stiff and appressed hairs above but are glabrous below. The well-developed basal leaves are elliptic, oblanceolate, or lance-ovate in shape with blades 2-15 cm long and 0.7-6 cm wide on a well-developed petiole. The numerous stem leaves are well developed and longer than the internodes (space between leaves), ranging from 2.5-7 times as long as wide. They are acute to obtuse at the tip and only the lower leaves are petiolate.

The inflorescence consists of several clusters of drooping flowers at the ends of the stems that form a dense to loose panicle. The pedicels are glabrous to covered with stiff, straight and appressed hairs. The tubular corolla is 1-2 cm in length with the tube 1.3-2 times longer than the slightly expanded limb (distal portion of the corolla) which is bell-shaped (See photo at right.). The calyx is 2.5-7 mm long and cleft to near the base. The individual calyx lobes are triangular-lanceolate with acute tips. The style is about equal in length as the corolla or may be slightly exserted.

Leafy bluebells may be found on open slopes, in dry meadows, and often among sagebrush from the plains and foothills to moderate elevations in the mountains.

Leafy bluebells may be found entirely east of the Cascades in Washington and Oregon south to central Nevada and northern Utah (Wasatch and Bear River ranges), and east to the edge of the Great Plains (eastern edge of the Rocky Mts.) in northern Wyoming.