Blue Mountain Catchfly

Description

Plants perennial, subscapose, cespitose; taproot stout; caudex branched, woody. Stems several, erect, simple, 15-50 cm, puberu-lent, viscid-glandular distally. Leaves mostly basal; basal mar-cescent, long-petiolate, densely tufted, blade 1-veined, narrowly oblanceolate, 2-10(-20) cm - 2-12(-20) mm, not fleshy, base tapering to petiole, apex acute to obtuse, finely puberulent on both surfaces; cauline in 1-3 pairs, sessile, much reduced, blade linear-lanceolate, not fleshy. Inflorescences 1-5(-7)-flowered, with terminal flower and lateral, open, pedunculate cymes often reduced to single flowers, bracteate; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 3-10(-20) mm. Pedicels erect, elongate, 0.5-4.5 cm, glandular-puberulent. Flowers: calyx prominently 10-veined, those to lobes lance-shaped broadened and thickened distally, commissural veins slender, not forked distally, campanulate, 10-12 - 3.5-5 mm in flower, enlarging to 15 - 10 mm in fruit, not contracted around carpophore, papery, margins dentate, glandular-pubescent, viscid, veins parallel, with pale commissures, lobes patent, ovate, 1.5-4 mm, rigid, margins broad, membranous; corolla off-white to dingy purple-red, clawed, claw exceeding calyx, ciliate proximally, broadened distally, limbs erect, 2-4-lobed, less than 2 length of calyx, lobes 2-5 mm, appendages 2-4, 0.5-1 mm; stamens slightly exserted; filaments lanate, expanded at base; styles 3-5, - equaling calyx. Capsules slightly longer than calyx, opening by 3-5 teeth; carpophore 1.5-2.5 mm. Seeds brown, reniform, 1.2-2 mm, margins with large, inflated papillae, rugose on sides. 2n = 48.Flowering early summer. Subalpine grassy, gravelly, or rocky slopes, ponderosa pine forests, juniper scrub, sagebrush; 900-3000 m; Colo., Idaho, Nev., Oreg.