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General
Description:
A perennial, mat-forming, low-growing shrub
with cymose inflorescences of showy flowers which have the family characteristic
of a salvariform corolla which may vary from white to purple; the sepals are
fused together, but are separated by membranous costae which bulge as keels
between them forming an unusual calyx.
Plant pulvinate to cespitose, usually without development of decumbent stems,
2-10 cm high; leaves narrowly to broadly subulate, glabrate to basally tomentose,
the larger 3-10 or rarely 12 mm long and 0.5-1 mm wide; inflorescence 1- or
rarely 3-flowered, the pedicels short; sepals 4-8 mm long, their costa distinct
and junction-membranes flat; corolla-tube 4-10 and petal-blades 3-8 mm long,
white to lilac; style 2-6 and stigmas 0.5-1 mm long. Dry rocky or gravelly barrens.
C. Wash. to subarctic Can., N. D., W. Neb., northern N. M., and E. Calif.; in
the lower vegetation zones of Idaho. Divisible into several entities which have
been classed as subspecies, although they intergrade here so extensively that
their separation may not be worth-while: canescens (T.&G.) Wherry, with
canescent to subtomentose herbage, larger leaves 8-12, sepals 7-9, and corolla-tube
8-10 mm long; genuina Wherry, also pubescent but with the larger leaves 6-8
(rarely 10), sepals 5-7, and corolla-tube 5-8 mm long; glabrata (E. Nels.) Wherry,
glabrate with dimensions of parts covering the range of the two preceding, and
viscidula Wherry, similar to genuina, but the hairs of the upper herbage finely
gland-tipped.
Distribution:
Southern British Columbia south through Washington, to souther California, east
to New Mexico and northward through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Idaho.
Habitat:
Dry, open rocky, sagebrush areas from low elevations to sometimes high in the
mountains; tends to increase with grazing or other disturbances.
Other:
Although it is an extremely attractive plant in the spring, no uses either by
Native Americans or modern day herbalists could be documented.