General: Perennial herb from a stout, somewhat woody stem-base; stems several, clustered, ascending to erect, 10-40 cm tall, usually unbranched, nearly smooth to soft-hairy or sometimes sticky glandular-hairy, especially in the inflorescence.
Leaves: Alternate, linear to lanceolate, 3-7 cm long, entire, or the upper sometimes with a few short lobes, nearly smooth to finely soft-hairy or glandular-hairy, the veins prominent.
Flowers: Inflorescence a prominently bracted terminal spike, at first compact, later elongating in fruit, the bracts usually crimson to purplish, occasionally scarlet or yellowish, egg-shaped to oblong, with 1 to 2 pairs of short lobes near the top, or entire and rounded, soft-hairy and sometimes sticky-hairy; corollas greenish, 20-35 mm long, 2-lipped, the upper lip beak-like, short-hairy, 8-12 mm long, much shorter than the tube and 4-5 times the length of the thickened, 3-toothed lower lip; calyces hairy, 15-25 mm long, deeply 2-lobed, these primary lobes again divided into 2 lanceolate, usually blunt, 3- to 6-mm long segments; stamens 4.
Fruits: Capsules, about 12 mm long; seeds many, the seed-coats loose, net-veined.
Mesic to moist meadows and rocky slopes in the subalpine and alpine zones; infrequent in S BC north to 53degreeN; E to SW AB and S to NM, UT, NV and 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)
