PLANT: Perennial herbs in AZ; stems erect to decumbent. LEAVES: alternate, pinnately lobed to compound; leaflets sessile, entire or divided into 2-5 lobes. INFLORESCENCE: terminal, open to compact and capitate or rarely axillary and then solitary. FLOWERS: actinomorphic; calyx herbaceous, becoming membranous, not ruptured in fruit, the lobes rounded to attenuate; corolla rotate to funnelform or salverform, white, yellow, blue or bluish violet; stamens equally inserted on the corolla tube; filaments equal in length, basally pilose; anthers included to exserted; style included to exserted, with 3 stigmatic branches. CAPSULE: globose to ovoid, dehiscent; seeds 1-20 per locule, gelatinous or not when wet. 2n=18,36. NOTES: ca 28 spp.; w N. Amer., 1 spp. in s S. Amer., several spp. in Eurasia. (for Polemon, a Greek philosopher or perhaps from the Greek word, polemos, meaning strife). Grant, V. 1989. Bot. Gazette 150: 158-169. REFERENCES: Dieter H. Wilken and J. Mark Porter, 2005, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Polemoniaceae. CANOTIA 1: 1-37.