Polemonium boreale, the northern Jacob's-ladder or boreal Jacobs-ladder, is a plant native to most of the high arctic. In Greenland it is found only in a small area on the east coast. It is not very common.
The whole plant is pubescent, with long woolly hairs, glandular, and grows to 5 - 10 cm tall. The basal leaves are more or less alternate, and pinnate, with numerous leaflets. The flowers are produced in a more or less capitate inflorescence, each flower bell-shaped, blue, 15 mm long, 2.5 times longer than the calyx. The plant has a very unpleasant smell, and grows on gravelly slopes and in crevices.