Montana Field Guide

Taprooted biennial or short-lived, monocarpic perennial. Stems erect, usually simple, 20–80 cm. Herbage hispid, hirsute. Leaves basal and cauline, prominently veiny; the blade 2–10 cm long, lanceolate to oblanceolate, entire; some lower leaves with 1 to 2 pairs of basal lobes. Inflorescence long, narrow, of compact, terminal and axillary cymes. Flowers: calyx hispid, glandular, 3–4 mm long; corolla campanulate, white to blue, 4–7 mm long, lobes 2–3 mm long; stamens pubescent, exserted; style exserted, deeply divided. Seeds ca. 2 (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

The distinction between this species and P. hastata is not clearcut.

Sparsely-vegetated soil of grasslands, sagebrush steppe, pine woodlands, roadsides; plains, valleys, montane (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus appositus, Bombus bifarius, Bombus centralis, Bombus fervidus, Bombus flavifrons, Bombus frigidus, Bombus huntii, Bombus melanopygus, Bombus mixtus, Bombus nevadensis, Bombus rufocinctus, Bombus sylvicola, Bombus sitkensis, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus insularis, and Bombus kirbiellus (Macior 1974, Thorp et al. 1983, Shaw and Taylor 1986, Mayer et al. 2000, Wilson et al. 2010, Pyke et al. 2012, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).