Polemonium acutiflorum Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.

vernacular tall Jacob's-ladder — species · Polemoniaceae

USDA: POAC
GBIF: 2927866
Rank: species

tall Jacob's-ladder (Polemonium acutiflorum) — Platephotograph · Anna Berliakova source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Forb/herb
Duration: Perennial
Group: Dicot
Family: Polemoniaceae Juss.
Genus: Polemonium

§2a

Native status, by region

AK Alaska Native
CAN Canada Native

§2b

County-level range

· 22 counties across 1 state

Legend Native · 22 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: None
Shade: Low
Salinity: None
Anaerobic: Low
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -62 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 47 min.
Precipitation: 9–276 in/yr
pH range: 5–7.8
Root depth: 12 in min.
Fertility need: Medium
Soil texture: coarse, medium

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Rhizomatous
Growth rate: Rapid
Lifespan: Short
Mature height: 3 ft
Foliage texture: Medium
Foliage colour: Green
Porosity (summer): Dense
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: Blue
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Summer
Seed begins: Spring
Seed ends: Fall
Spread rate: Moderate
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 464,940
Propagation: seed, cuttings, bare root, container

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Routinely Available
Nursery stock: Yes
Palatable, human: No
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 22 counties across 1 state.

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/POAC ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/2927866 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T07:25:30Z