General:
Annual herb from a taproot, short curly- or stiff-hairy (or appressed-hairy) throughout; stems simple or branched above, 5-50 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves oblanceolate, often deciduous, 2-6 cm long, to 1 cm wide; stem leaves linear or linear-oblong to oblanceolate, reduced upward to the leafy, lanceolate bracts of the inflorescence, unstalked or nearly so, entire, alternate.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of narrow, elongating clusters that have bracts throughout; flower stalks ascending to erect when in fruit; petals blue or white, fused at base into small (2-4 mm long) tube that flares a bit (1.5-2.5 mm wide) at the top to 5 lobes, with 5 yellow bulges at the throat; fruiting calyces 3-3.5 mm long, the lobes erect.

Fruits:
Nutlets 4, clustered together, egg-shaped, 2-3 mm long, with a crown of marginal, barb-tipped prickles in a single row, prickles distinct or sometimes fused at the base to form a cuplike rim.

Note: Two varieties occur in BC:
1. Prickles of nutlets distinct to base; the common variety var. occidentalis
1. Prickles of nutlets fused at base, forming a cup; rare var. cupulata (A. Gray) Higgins

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Lappula echinata var. occidentalis (S. Wats.) Boivin
Lappula redowskii auct. non (Hornem.) Greene
Lappula redowskii var. desertorum (Greene) I.M. Johnston
Lappula redowskii var. occidentalis (S. Wats.) Rydb.
Lappula redowskii var. redowskii (Hornem.) Greene