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.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

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.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia