General: Perennial herb from a thick stem-base with coarse fibrous roots, smooth or nearly so throughout; stems usually several, clustered, erect, 15-50 cm tall, unbranched.
Leaves: Basal leaves lacking or much reduced; stem leaves alternate, numerous, short-stalked to unstalked, narrowly lanceolate, 4-10 cm long, reduced downward, not divided but the margins finely toothed.
Flowers: Inflorescence a rather loose, elongate, bracted, terminal raceme of several flowers, the lower flowers sometimes stalked in the leaf axils, the bracts (especially the lower ones) leaflike, equalling or longer than the flowers; corollas cream to pinkish-white or purplish, 10-16 mm long, 2-lipped, the upper lip 5-9 mm long, strongly arched, hooded, prolonged into a slender beak 5-7 mm long, the beak curved down and in toward the lower lip, which is 5 mm long and deflexed-spreading; calyces 5-8 mm long, 2-lobed, the lobes obliquely egg-shaped, 1-3 mm long; stamens 4.
Fruits: Capsules, asymmetrical, 10-16 mm long; seeds several, about 2 mm long.
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)
Shade-tolerant/intolerant, subalpine Western North American forb distributed more in the Cordilleran than the Pacific region. Species occurs in continental boreal and cool temperate climates on moderately dry to fresh, nitrogenmedium soils; occurrence increases with continentality. Common in subalpine meadows and open-canopy, highelevation forests on watershedding sites in the coast-interior ecotone.
 e1.jpg)
