General: Perennial herb from a thick, fleshy root; stems 1-many, ascending to erect, 0.2-1.2 m tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves few, essentially reduced to short bracts; stem leaves opposite, oblong-lanceolate, 3-6 cm long, 7-15 mm wide, 10-15 pairs, the lowest reduced to short bracts joined at the base for most of their length, upper leaves becoming gradually larger.
Flowers: Inflorescence of several stalked or unstalked flowers; corollas blue mottled with streaks of green, tubular to funnel-shaped, 3-4.5 cm long, 5-lobed, the lobes oblong to kidney-shaped, nerved, the plaits of the sinuses squared off or round, entire; calyx tubes 8-14 mm long, the lobes shorter than the tubes and narrowly lanceolate; stamens slightly shorter than the corolla tubes; anthers 3-4 mm long.
Wet to moist meadows, bogs and lake margins in the lowland and montane zones; common on Vancouver Island and adjacent coast, rare northward; S to N 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)
Very shade-intolerant, submontane to montane, Pacific North American forb; occurrence decreases with increasing continentality. Species occurs in hypermaritime to submaritime cool mesothermal climates on wet to very wet, nitrogen-medium soils. Occasional in semi-terrestrial communities (less frequently in open-canopy forests) on water-collecting sites with surface groundwater table and accumulations of peat. Characteristic of wetlands.
