General: hairless annual 10-35 cm tall, stems usually several from the base, simple or branched.
Leaves: numerous in a basal tuft, oblanceolate to spatulate, 1.5-4 cm long, stem leaves opposite, 2-4 pairs, narrowly lanceolate to oblong or oblanceolate.
Flowers: terminal on long, naked stalks and usually also from leaf axils with a pair of scarcely reduced, leaflike bracts at or below midlength. Calyx 15-25 mm long, the 4 lobes pointed, about equaling the tube. Corolla 3.5-5.5 cm long, deep blue or purplish, glandular at the base between the bases of the filaments, the 4 lobes about equal to the tube, oblong-obovate, ragged at the tip and the sides. Stamens slightly shorter than, and inserted midlength of the corolla tube, the joined portion wing-edged, the free portion thin and flat. Anthers oblong, 3-4 mm long. Style comparatively slender, 4-6 mm long, the stigma lobed, broad and flattened, comb-like fringed.
July-August.
Fruits: capsules, the seeds prism-shaped, about 0.5 mm long, finely honey-combed, dark-brown.
Distribution
Meadows, bogs, and moist ground, in w. and s.c. parts of MT. Circumboreal, in N. America from Newf. to AK, ID, CA, AZ, Mexico, SD, IN and NY.
Advertising Disclosure: Montana Plant Life may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or visitors clicking on links posted on this website.
No edibility data
No medicinal data
