Distribution: Occurring chiefly west of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east across the northern U.S. and Canada to the Atlantic Coast.

Habitat: Waste ground and disturbed soil.

Flowers: April-June

Origin: Introduced from southern Europe

Growth Duration: Annual

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bees, flies

Taprooted annuals, the stems 2-6 dm. tall, covered with pungent bristles.

Leaves alternate, the lower petiolate, the blade broadly elliptic to oblanceolate, 3-11 cm. long and 2-6 cm. wide; cauline leaves reduced upward, becoming sessile and often clasping.

Inflorescence a loose, terminal cyme, leafy-bracteate below; pedicles 1-4 cm. long, recurved in fruit; sepals 5, narrow, densely bristly, 1-1.5 cm. long; corolla blue, rotate, 2 cm. wide, with 5 acute lobes; fornices well developed; filaments 5, attached at the level of the fornices, prolonged past the base of the anther into appendages 3 mm. long.

Nutlets 4, nearly cylindric, 4-5 mm. long, attached basally by a projection that fits into a pit.