General: Annual herb from a taproot; stems erect, 5-40 cm tall, simple or branched, nearly smooth below, glandular-hairy above.
Leaves: Opposite, oblong to lanceolate, 1-4 cm long, minutely toothed to entire, nearly smooth, the lower leaves on 5- to 10 mm-long stalks, the middle and upper leaves unstalked or nearly so, becoming bract-like, smaller and linear in the inflorescence.
Flowers: Inflorescence an open, terminal cluster of short-stalked flowers, (1) 3 to 7 per node, whorled in the axils of leaflike bracts, the stalks smooth to minutely hairy or glandular-hairy; corollas 7-17 mm long, the tube abruptly bent near the base at a right angle to the calyx and short-pouched at the bend, 2-lipped, the upper lip 2-lobed, blue to purple, pale at the centre, the lower lip 3-lobed, deep blue-violet; calyces 4-8 mm long, 5-lobed, the lobes awl-shaped, 2-5 mm long; stamens 4.
Fruits: Capsules, 4-5 mm long; seeds usually 4, round-oblong, smooth, reddish-brown.
1. Corolla 4-7 (10) mm, the tube bent at an oblique angle to the calyx, strongly pouched at the bend; widespread in vernally mesic habitats in w N Am...........................Collinsia parviflora Lindl.
1. Corolla 9-17 mm, the tube bent at about a right angle to the calyx, short-pouched at the bend; open places at middle and lower elevations W Cas, and in CRG.......................Collinsia grandiflora Lindl.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia and Flora of the Pacific Northwest.
Habitat / Range
Vernally moist to dry grassy slopes, mossy rock outcrops and forest edges in the lowland and montane zones; frequent in S BC in and west of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, infrequent N along the coast to 54degreeN; S to UT and CA.
Blue-eyed Marys as a group have extra-floral nectaries (packets of nectar) that occur outside the flower, sometimes on the leaves.
Ecology
Ecological Framework for Collinsia grandiflora
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)
