Virginia Bluebells is also called Mertensia virginica. Mertensia virginica is a species of flowering plant in the family
Boraginaceae, native to moist woodland in eastern North America. It is a
spring ephemeral plant with bell-shaped sky-blue flowers opening from
pink buds.
The leaves are rounded and gray-green, borne on stems up to 60 cm (24
in) tall. They are petiolate at the bottom of the flower stem and sessile at
the top.
Flowers with five petals fused into a tube, five stamens, and a central
pistil (carpel) are borne in mid-spring in nodding cymes at the end of arched
stems. White flowers occur rarely.
Stamen and pistil are spaced too far apart for self-fertilization. The
flower can be pollinated by bumblebees, but due to its funnel shape, bumblebees
must hover, making the bumblebee a rare pollinator. Butterflies are the most
common pollinators, because they can easily perch on the edges and still enjoy
the nectar. In early summer, each fertilized flower produces four seeds within
wrinkled nuts, and the plant goes dormant till the next spring. Plants are hardy to hardiness zone 3 - −40 °C (−40 °F).In cultivation, M. virginica has gained the Royal Horticultural
Society's Award of Garden Merit
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