Pedicularis bracteosa var. bracteosa
Pedicularis bracteosa var. latifolia

General:
Perennial herb from a mix of coarse fibrous and tuberous-thickened roots, smooth except long-hairy in the inflorescence; stems single or clustered, erect, 30-100 cm tall, unbranched.

Leaves:
Basal leaves similar to the stem leaves but longer-stalked, or much smaller or lacking; stem leaves alternate, short-stalked to unstalked, 7-16 cm long, deeply pinnately cleft into narrowly oblong to lanceolate segments, the main segments 1-7 cm long, jaggedly incised and also finely saw-toothed or merely double-toothed, the leaves reduced and less divided upward.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a dense, elongate, terminal spike of numerous flowers, above several hairy, leaflike but undivided bracts; corollas yellow or tinged with red or purple to wholly purple, 13-21 mm long, 2-lipped, the upper lip hood-like, beakless or very short-beaked, about as long as the tube, the lower lip 3-lobed; calyces 7-10 mm long, hairy, 5-lobed, the lobes glandular-hairy to nearly smooth, the upper lobe shortest; stamens 4.

Fruits:
Capsules, asymmetrical, flattened, curved, smooth, 10-12 mm long; seeds several, 2-5 mm long, net-veined.

Notes:
Two varieties occur in BC

1. Free tips of the lateral calyx-lobes very slender, threadlike, glandular; the common variety................... var. bracteosa

1. Free tips of the lateral calyx-lobes lanceolate to triangular, sparsely or not at all glandular; infrequent in C and S BC........................... var. latifolia (Pennell) Cronq.

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