Distribution: Occurring chiefly west of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east to Idaho, Montana, and Utah; also in eastern North America.

Habitat: Along roadways, railways and waste land.

Flowers: June-August

Origin: Introduced from Europe

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Gray-woolly perennial from a branched crown; stems several, simple, stout, 4-10 dm. tall.

Leaves opposite, the basal lanceolate to oblanceolate, slender-petiolate, 5-10 cm. long and 1-2.5 cm. wide; cauline leaves 5-10 pairs, often overlapping, reduced upward, sessile above.

Flowers perfect, showy, several in an open, branched, leafy-bracteate cyme; calyx about 15 mm. long at flowering, the tube enlarged but not inflated in fruit, woolly, 10-nerved, the 5 lobes slender; corolla 5-lobed, deep red; claw of the petals equaling the calyx, narrow, the blade 10-15 mm. long, obcordate, with 2 linear, acute appendages 2-4 mm. long at the base; styles 5; stamens 10, fused with the base of the petals.