General: Annual herb from a taproot, stiff-hairy or bristly, with cucumber-scented juice; stems ascending to erect, usually branching above, 20-70 cm tall.
Leaves: Lower leaves stalked, blades broadly elliptic or egg-shaped to oblanceolate, 5-15 cm long and 2-6 cm wide, the others reduced and shorter-stalked upwards, the uppermost often unstalked and clasping, alternate, entire or wavy-edged.
Flowers: Inflorescence of several loose, terminal clusters with leafy bracts below; flower stalks spreading to drooping; corollas flat or somewhat backswept, star-shaped; petals bright blue, fused at base, spreading wide (to 2 cm across) to 5 sharp-pointed lobes, with 5 erect, notched, white, glabrous bulges at the throat; stamens purplish-brown, sticking out from the flower and forming a cone; fruiting calyces 1-1.5 cm long, densely bristly.
Fruits: Nutlets 4, clustered together, oblong or egg-shaped, 4-6 mm long, irregularly ridged and pimply, with a swollen budlike basal attachment surrounded by a thickened rim.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
