PLANT: Short-lived perennial, 12-50 cm tall, usually branched thorughout; stems glabrous to glandular pubescent. LEAVES: gradually to abruptly reduced above the basal rosette; basal and lower sparsely short pubescent above, glabrous beneath, lobed to toothed, the rachis broader than the lobes; cauline usually glabrous, toothed to entire. INFLORESCENCE: open, with 1-5 pedicelled flowers on tips of spreading to ascending branches. FLOWERS: calyx 4- 5 mm long, glandular pubescent to nearly glabrous in AZ, the lobes acute; corolla funnelform, 6-10 mm long, bluish to magenta; stamens inserted at the sinuses of the corolla lobes; anthers located at the orifice or slightly exserted; stigma located above to below the anthers. CAPSULE: 3-5 mm long, ovoid. 2n=16. NOTES: 2 subspp., UT to CO, s to AZ and NM. REFERENCES: Dieter H. Wilken and J. Mark Porter, 2005, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Polemoniaceae. CANOTIA 1: 1-37.