General: Parasitic herb from a coarse fleshy root and thickened stem-base; stems single or clustered, stout, up to 3 cm thick above, yellow to red or purple, 8-12 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves scaly-bracteate, alternate, the bracts entire, overlapping like the bracts on a conifer cone.
Flowers: Inflorescence of numerous flowers in dense spikes, each flower subtended by a bract; corollas yellow to purple, 1-1.5 cm long with the lower lip shorter than the upper lip; calyces with 2-3 lobes; filaments with tufts of basal hairs.
Fruits: Capsules, 1-1.5 cm long; seeds numerous, minute, honeycombed.
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subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
Parasitic on Gaultheria shallon in moist to mesic forests in the lowland zone; locally frequent on S Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, rare on the Queen Charlotte Islands and SW mainland; S to N CA.
