Pixel Wild
Virginia bluebells
Virginia bluebells
Mertensia virginica
Plantae
COMMON

Stats

Lifespan
Perennial
Size
Medium
Diet
Photosynthetic
Biome
Temperate forest
Range
North America
Movement
Sessile
Breeding
Seeds
Defense
Toxins
Status
Common

About

A springtime woodland wildflower whose clusters of bell-shaped blooms open pink and mature to sky blue on the same stem. It carpets floodplain forests each April, then dies back completely and vanishes underground by early summer.

Life cycle

  1. 1.
    seed
    A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
  2. 2.
    sprout
    A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
  3. 3.
    sapling
    A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
  4. 4.
    mature
    Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Tracheophyta
Class
Magnoliopsida
Order
Boraginales
Family
Boraginaceae
Genus
Mertensia
Species
Mertensia virginica