General:
Perennial herb from a somewhat woody stem-base; stems several, clustered, ascending to erect, often from decumbent bases, 10-50 cm tall, usually unbranched, sticky long-soft-hairy.

Leaves:
Alternate, appressed-ascending and overlapping, often obscuring the stem, sticky long-soft-hairy, the lower leaves linear-lanceolate and entire, the upper ones broader, 2-6 cm long, with 1 to 3 pairs of linear spreading lobes, mostly from above the middle.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a prominently bracted terminal spike, narrow and ultimately elongate, the bracts pale yellow, oblong, wider than the leaves and concealing the flowers, blunt to rounded at the top, glandular-hairy, with 1 or 2 pairs of short narrow lobes; corollas 20-28 mm long, 2-lipped, the upper lip beak-like, densely glandular-short-hairy, 4-7 mm long, included in the calyx or slightly exserted, much shorter than the tube, from slightly longer than to 3 times as long as the prominent, 3-lobed, lower lip; calyces often purplish, hairy, 20-30 mm long, deeply 2-lobed, these primary lobes broad and usually rounded at the top, entire or notched; stamens 4.

Fruits:
Capsules, 10-13 mm long; seeds many, the seed-coats loose, net-veined.

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

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Castilleja lutea A. Heller