Mertensia virginica (common names Virginia bluebells,[1] Virginia cowslip, lungwort oysterleaf, Roanoke bells) is a spring ephemeral plant with bell-shaped sky-blue flowers, native to eastern North America.

Virginia bluebells
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Boraginales
Family:	Boraginaceae
Genus:	Mertensia
Species:	M. virginica
Binomial name
Mertensia virginica (L.) Pers. ex Link, 1829

Description

Virginia bluebells have rounded and gray-green leaves, borne on stems up to 24 in (60 cm) tall. They are petiolate at the bottom of the flower stem and sessile at the top.

Flowerbuds are pink. Flowers have five petals fused into a tube, five stamens, and a central pistil (carpel). They are borne in mid-spring in nodding spiral-shaped cymes at the end of arched stems. Flowers are usually blue, but white or pink flowers occur rarely.

The stamens and stigma 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^{[citation needed]}. 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.[2]

[3]

Uses

Virginia bluebells had several uses in traditional Native American medicine, including as a pulmonary aid, tuberculosis treatment, and treatment for whooping cough (Cherokee,) root infusion antidote for treating poison, and root decoction venereal to treat venereal issues (Iroquois.) [4]. Native Americans believed a tonic made from this plant could help heal those who were under-the-weather. According to St. Olaf College in Minnesota, uses of Virginia bluebells have been studied but offer no scientific proof that this plant can be used for medicinal purposes.[5]

Mertensia virginica is edible, including the flowers. [6]

• Photos
• 
  Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) in Ohio
• 
  Leaves before blooming
• 
  Flower buds
• 
  Typical blue-flowered form at the botanical gardens in Berlin, Germany
• 
  A pink-flowered form
• 
  A white-flowered form
• 
  Fruits
• 
  Woods carpeted in bluebells
• 
  A bumblebee hanging from a bluebell

Nomenclature

Mertensia virginica is the type species for the genus Mertensia and was first described by Linnaeus in 1753 as Pulmonaria virginica.[7] The genus Pulmonaria is today restricted to 19 species in the tribe Boragineae. When Albrecht Wilhelm Roth erected the genus Mertensia in 1797, he named the Virginia bluebell as Mertensia pulmonarioides, apparently unaware that Linnaeus had already named it in his Species Plantarum. Roth's name is a superfluous synonym and has been used in recent literature.[8]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mertensia virginica.

• Wildflower.org: Native Plant Identification Network
• Missouri Plants: Mertensia virginica
• Illinois Plant Information Network: Mertensia virginica
• RHS Plant Selector: Mertensia virginica
• Pulmonaria In Species Plantarum vol. 1 At Botanicus
• Nomenclature of the Virginia bluebell At Volume 21, View Book At SIDA, contributions to botany At BHL