Distribution: Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Washington to California, east to Utah and Arizona.

Habitat: Dry, open, often sandy or rocky areas in sagebrush plains and foothills.

Flowers: May-July

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bees, flies, hummingbirds

Much-branched shrubs, often broader than high, the rigid branches 2-5 dm. tall.

Leaves opposite, numerous, often in bundles, silvery with a close, mealy pubescence, the blade oblanceolate to elliptic, 1.5-3 cm. long and 4-15 mm. wide, narrowed to a short petiole.

Flowers in a series of dense, bracteate verticels at the ends of many of the branches; bracts broadly elliptic to obovate, purplish, 7-12 mm. long, dry, granular on the back; calyx two-lipped; corolla usually bright blue-violet, I cm. long, two-lipped, the spreading, 3-lobed lower lip much longer than the short, flat, 2-lobed upper lip; stamens 2, long-exerted; style narrow, long, 2-parted; ovary 2-celled, superior.

Nutlets 4