Mountain kittentails

Description

Synthyris missurica is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common names tailed kittentails, mountain kittentails, or Columbia kittentails. It is native to the Pacific Northwest of the United States, where it grows in moist areas in forests and other mountain and foothill habitat types. It has the widest range of any of the nine Synthyris species. It is often one of the first wildflowers to bloom in its mountain habitat, sometimes coming up before the snow is melted. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb with a rosette of basal leaves with toothed, rounded blades borne on petioles. The inflorescence is a raceme of bright violet-blue flowers, each about half a centimeter long with two protruding stamens. Synthyris is a botanical genus belonging to the Plantaginaceae family. Traditionally this genus was classified in the Scrophulariaceae family.