Click on the image below to view an
expanded illustration for this species.
|
General: Annual herb from a small taproot; stems erect or ascending, simple to freely branched, 10-30 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves oblanceolate or spoon-shaped, soon deciduous; stem leaves opposite, lanceolate, 1-3 cm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence an open raceme-like cluster of terminal or mostly axillary flowers on long slender stalks from the upper leaves; corollas blue or white, 6-15 mm long, 4- to 5-lobed, the lobes cleft nearly to the base, elliptic to egg-shaped, often purple-veined, each lobe with a pair of fringed, scale-like appendages at the base; calyces deeply 4- to 5-lobed, the lobes linear to linear-lanceolate, about 4/5 the length of the corollas; stamens nearly 1/2 the length of the corollas; anthers 2 mm long.
Fruits: Capsules, cylindric, 1.0-1.7 cm long, slightly longer than the corolla; seeds oblong, prismatic, wingless, brown, deeply few-pitted.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
|