Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual herbs.

Stems: Stems 1 to several, erect or ascending, 1–4(–5) dm long, unbranched or branched above, usually also with short, spreading, prostrate branches, these sometimes developing into upright flowering stems.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Leaves of short basal stems opposite to ternate, those of erect flowering stems alternate. Those of short basal stems narrowly oblanceolate to spatulate, those of erect flowering stems linear. dimorphic, 0.5–1 cm long, 0.2–0.4 mm wide, 1–2.5(–3) cm long, 0.1–0.2 cm wide. Margins entire. Sessile. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in glabrous to glandular puberulent racemes. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Pedicels 1–7 mm long. Calyx 2.8–3.5 mm long, the lobes broadly lanceolate, Calyx 5-lobed, divided nearly to base, the lobes equal. Corolla pale blue to violet, palate whitish, 7–13 mm long, spur curved, 2–11 mm long, upper lip ca. 3.5–5 mm long, the lobes erect, lower lip 7–11 mm long, the lobes spreading, rounded. Stamens 4, in 2 pairs; anthers glabrous; stigma small, capitate. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate, with as many cells; ovule placentation axile.

Fruit: Capsules subglobose; 2.8–3.5 mm long; irregularly splitting at apex of each cell. Seeds angular; truncate; 0.3–0.5 mm long; the surface tuberculate or smooth.

Ploidy: 2n = 12; 24

Habitat: naturalized in subalpine woodland and on dry slopes and ridges.

Elevation Range: 520–1,900 m.