Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east across North America to the Atlantic Coast.

Habitat: Moist areas, sea level to moderate elevations in the mountains.

Flowers: May-September

Origin: Both native and introduced

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bees, butterflies

Perennial herbs from a short rhizome, the erect or decumbent, solitary or clustered stems 1-5 dm. tall, loosely puberulent or glabrous.

Leaves opposite, petiolate, few, cauline and usually basal also, mostly entire, the blade elliptic to broadly ovate, 2-9 cm. long and 0.7-4 cm. wide, the lower leaves broader than the upper.

Flowers in verticels, crowded in dense, bracteate, terminal spikes 2-5 cm. long and 1.5-2 cm. thick; the bracts about 1 cm. long, ovate and short-acuminate, sharply differentiated from the leaves; calyx 7-10 mm. long, green or purple, two-lipped, the upper lip broad, shallowly 3-toothed, the lower deeply cleft with 2 narrow segments; corolla two-lipped, usually blue-violet, 1-2 cm. long, the tube equaling the calyx, the lips short; stamens 4, enclosed by the hood-like upper lip of the corolla, the lower pair the longer; style 2-parted; ovary 2-celled, superior.

Nutlets 4