Synonyms: Other names: splitleaf Indian paintbrush Nomenclature: rhexifolia = split leaved Nativity / Invasiveness: Montana native plant
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Description
General: perennial, the stems clustered, erect or ascending from a woody base, 10-30 (40) cm tall, usually unbranched, almost hairless, softly long-hairy, or sometimes somewhat sticky-hairy.
Leaves: alternate, linear-lanceolate or sometimes broader, ordinarily all entire, but the upper ones sometimes slightly lobed, hairless to short-hairy, finely long-hairy, or with somewhat sticky hairs.
Flowers: many in a conspicuous cluster, generally crimson, but varying to scarlet and occasionally yellow, at first short and broad, but often elongating in fruit. Bracts oblong-ovate, entire and rounded or sometimes pointed, commonly with 1-2 pairs of short side lobes, softly long-hairy. Calyx 15-25 mm long, almost equally cleft above and below, its primary lobes again divided into 2 usually blunt segments 3-6 mm long. Corolla 20-35 mm long, its short-hairy upper lip usually much shorter than the tube and 4-5 times as long as the dark green, thickened, lower lip.
June-August.
Alpine and subalpine meadows and slopes, in w. and c. parts of MT. Also in Rocky Mts. from Alberta and B.C. to ID, CO and n. UT.
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