General: Perennial herb from compact and tuberous-fleshy to fibrous and many-branched roots; stems erect, 10-40 (70) cm tall, smooth to very hairy, bases often reddish.
Leaves: Mostly on lower 1/4 of stem, at time of flowering the basal leaves 2 to 6 and stem leaves 2 to 10, alternate, stalks 0.4-12 cm long, blades round, 1-6 cm long, 2-12 cm wide, reduced and with fewer segments upward, 2- to 4-times palmately parted or lobed into linear segments, the ultimate segments 5 to 21 and 1-7 (14) mm wide on basal leaves, 0.5-6 mm wide on stem leaves, entire, nearly smooth.
Flowers: Inflorescence a 4- to 18-flowered, terminal raceme, the flowers bilaterally symmetric; bracts linear, green to bluish, 3-7 mm long, smooth to hairy; flower stalks ascending to spreading, 0.8-6 cm long, smooth to hairy; petals 4, the upper 2 united, almost white, blue-veined, spurred, enclosed in upper sepal, nectary inside spur, the lower petals 2, blue to purple (except when white-flowered), elevated and exposing stamens, clawed, 4-11 mm long, 2-lobed, cleft 2-5 mm, the hairs white, rarely yellow, mostly on inner lobes on claw; sepals 5, usually bluish purple, rarely white to pink, minutely-hairy, the lateral two bent back or spreading, 8-21 mm long, 3-10 mm wide, the lower two similar to lateral, the upper one spurred, the spur gently curved downward to straight, 8-23 mm long; stamens 10 to many; pistils 3 (-5).
Fruits: Follicles, 7-22 mm long, 3- to 3.5-times longer than wide, smooth to minutely-hairy, beaked; seeds obpyramidal, winged or not, smooth or rough.
Mesic to dry grasslands, meadows, shrublands and open forests in the steppe and montane zones; common in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; E to SW AB and S to NM, AZ, NV and 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)
