General:
Perennial herb from a woody stem-base, smooth throughout except for the flowers, or minutely hairy on the stems especially above; often with short leafy mat-forming stems at the base, the flowering stems usually several, clumped, ascending to erect but often decumbent-based, 10-50 cm tall, slender.

Leaves:
Basal leaves stalked, lanceolate to spoon-shaped, 3-10 cm long, entire, occasionally poorly developed; stem leaves opposite, narrowly lanceolate, entire, unstalked, slightly smaller than the basal leaves.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a slender terminal cluster, interrupted below, of 2 to 10 dense whorls of several stalked flowers, the bracts with papery and ragged margins; corollas narrowly tubular, 0.8-1.2 cm long, sulphur-yellow to yellowish-white, 2-lipped, smooth on the outside, hairy within at the throat; calyces 3-5 mm long, 5-lobed, the lobes lanceolate to oblong, abruptly long-pointy-tipped, the margins broad-papery and ragged; fertile stamens 4, the anthers smooth; sterile stamen about as long as the fertile stamens, brownish-bearded at its expanded tip.

Fruits:
Capsules, 4-5 mm long; seeds numerous, 0.5-1 mm long.

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.

Flower Colour:
Yellow

Blooming Period:
Mid Summer

Fruit/Seed characteristics:
Colour: Brown
Present from Spring to Fall

Source:  The USDA