General: Perennial herb from a somewhat woody stem-base; stems several, clustered, erect or ascending, 10-30 (50) cm tall, unbranched, nearly smooth to thinly long-soft-hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, lanceolate, 1.5-5 cm long, nearly smooth to sparsely soft-hairy, all except the lowermost cleft into 3 to 5 lateral lobes, the lobes usually much narrower than the mid-blade.
Flowers: Inflorescence a prominently bracted terminal spike, the bracts rose-pink, magenta, crimson or sometimes whitish, lanceolate to egg-shaped, 3- to 5-lobed, long-soft-hairy, about as long as the flowers; corollas greenish, 12-25 mm long, 2-lipped, the upper lip beak-like, minutely hairy, 3-7 mm long, about as long as the tube and 3 or more times as long as the thickened, 3-toothed, lower lip; calyces 10-20 mm long, 2-lobed, these primary lobes again divided into 2 segments 3-6 mm long, coloured like the bracts; stamens 4.
Fruits: Capsules, egg-shaped, smooth, 8-11 mm long; seeds many, the seed-coats loose and net-veined.
Although in British Columbia we do not recognize varieties of this species, four varieties are recognized by the USDA (2010): var. olympica, var. albida, var. oreopola and var. parviflora. In 1984, var. olympica (previously thought to be endemic to the Olympic Peninsula) was reported by Ogilvie and Ceska (1984) for Vancouver Island.
Habitat / Range
Moist to mesic meadows, heath, streambanks and rocky slopes in the subalpine and alpine zones; frequent throughout BC; N to YT, E to SW AB and S to CA.
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)
