Perennial herb. The leaves are in basal rosettes that are 4-16 cm broad. The leaves are bright green, oblong, rounded at the tip, 6-9 cm long, 2.0-2.5 cm wide, and covered with short, knob-tipped (sticky and glandular) hairs. The flowers are solitary on leafless stalks (scapes) that become 8-15 cm tall, and have scattered, short, knob-tipped hairs. The flowers are bilaterally symmetrical with the calyx 2-lipped, the upper lip with three distinct lobes and the lower lip with two smaller lobes (see persistent calyx around fruit in illustration). The corolla consists of an expanded portion that is 2.5-3.0 cm wide with five nearly equal lobes that are obovate to nearly round, 8-13 mm long, 10-14 mm wide, and shallowly notched; a narrow tube that is 4-5 mm long; and a narrow, basal, downward extension or spur that is 3-5 mm long. The corolla tube and spur are lemon yellow with prominent brownish-violet veins; the ground color of the expanded portion of the corolla varies from deep to pale bluish-violet with darker veins, with a ring of white at the throat and a mass of yellowish, sometimes reddish-tipped, club-shaped hairs at the center. Some of these hairs, besides occurring along the inner throat, are found on an appendage (palate) that projects obliquely some 3-5 mm from the lower, inner surface of the corolla tube. The two stamens are white; the single ovary has a white style with two unequal lobes. The fruit is a rounded capsule, 5 mm in diameter, with numerous seeds. The seeds are brown, small (0.5-0.7 mm long), somewhat broadened at one end, and honeycomb-surfaced.
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