General: Perennial herb from a branching, woody stem-base; stems several to many, tufted, ascending to erect, 20-70 cm tall, somewhat woody at the base, smooth below, usually minutely hairy above especially in the inflorescence, but not glandular.
Leaves: Opposite, unstalked or short-stalked on vigorous shoots, broadly lanceolate to elliptic or oblong-egg-shaped, 2-9 cm long, saw-toothed to jagged-toothed or sometimes nearly entire, often wavy-edged, essentially smooth; upper leaves sometimes clasping-based.
Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, of 1 to 5 whorled clusters of stalked flowers, the lower whorls often open, the upper compact; corollas deep blue to purple, tubular, 1.5-2.5 cm long, smooth inside and out or sometimes hairy within at base of lower lip, 2-lipped, the upper lip 2-lobed, the lower lip 3-lobed, the lobes smooth; calyces 5-9 mm long, 5-lobed, the lobes fringed with hairs and sometimes irregularly cleft; fertile stamens 4, the anthers smooth except for a hairy fringe along the sutures; sterile stamen yellow-bearded on the upper half.
Fruits: Capsules, 5-8 mm long, usually slightly exceeding the appressed calyx lobes; seeds numerous, 1-1.5 mm long.
Streambanks and moist gullies and rocky slopes in the lowland to lower subalpine zones; frequent in W BC south of 56degreeN, except absent from the Queen Charlotte Islands, rare E of Coast-Cascade Mountains; S to OR.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
