General:
Annual herb from a taproot, short, straight, appressed-hairy (and sometimes curly- or spreading-hairy) throughout; stems usually branched, 10-80 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves oblanceolate, to 10 cm long, often deciduous; stem leaves linear to narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, reduced upwards to the leafy, lanceolate bracts of the inflorescence, unstalked, entire, alternate.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of narrow, elongating clusters with bracts throughout; flower stalks ascending to erect when in fruit; petals blue (sometimes white), fused at base into a small tube that flares (2-4 mm wide) at top to 5 lobes, with 5 yellow bulges at throat; fruiting calyces 2.5-3 mm long, the lobes spreading

Fruits:
Nutlets 4, clustered together, egg-shaped, 3-4 mm long, with 2(-3) marginal rows of slender, barb-tipped prickles distinct to the base, those of the outer row usually shorter than those of the inner.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Lappula echinata
Lappula erecta A. Nels.
Lappula fremontii (Torr.) Greene
Lappula lappula (L.) Karst.
Lappula myosotis
Lappula squarrosa var. erecta (A. Nels.) Dorn