My purchase of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) was the subject of my last post. As mentioned I have never seen them growing but I have seen photographs of them carpeting woodlands in the States with sky blue flowers.

 That triggered a memory. I wondered if I might have encountered them on one of my hiking trips in California and Oregon. But that didn't make sense because M. virginica is native to eastern North America not the Pacific North-West.

 Then I remembered a plant I saw quite often (as shown above) when I hiked from Lake Tahoe to the Meiss Meadows. I published an entry on 27th. September 2019 noting that it appeared to be one of the Boraginaceae, species unknown. Not a Virginia Bluebell but I reckon this must be the Mountain Bluebell (Mertensia ciliata), native to California, Nevada, Utah and Oregon. Nice to tie up that loose end albeit a few years later.

 Actually to call it a Bluebell is slightly misleading if we are comparing it to the European Bluebells i.e. Hyacinthoides. The flowers of M. virginica and ciliata are more like a Lungwort or a Comfrey which are also in the Borage family.