General: Perennial herb from a stout, somewhat woody stem-base; stems several, clustered, ascending to erect, 20-60 cm tall, usually unbranched, finely long-soft-hairy to sometimes bristly-hairy, especially above.
Leaves: Alternate, lanceolate to narrowly egg-shaped, finely soft-hairy to sometimes sticky-long-hairy, the lower leaves entire and reduced, the upper ones usually with 1 to 2 pairs of narrow lobes above the middle.
Flowers: Inflorescence a prominently bracted terminal spike, at first compact, later elongating in fruit, the bracts bright red to scarlet, occasionally yellowish, oblong-egg-shaped, deeply 3- to 5-lobed above the middle, minutely hairy and also long-soft-hairy; corollas greenish, 20-40 mm long, 2-lipped, the upper lip beak-like, short-hairy, about as long as the tube and 5 or more times the length of the thickened, 3-toothed lower lip; calyces hairy, 15-30 mm long, deeply 2-lobed, these primary lobes again divided into 2 rounded, 1- to 7-mm long segments; stamens 4.
Fruits: Capsules; seeds many, the seed-coats loose, net-veined.
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)
