Caudices mostly simple or sometimes branched apically and cespitose, 0.1-5 × (0.2-) 1-3.5 cm, axillary branches absent. Leaves persistent (withering in early summer in subsp. marcescens); rosettes 1-3, in clumps or not, 5-25-leaved, (3-)6-15(-35) cm diam.; blade green or gray-blue, usually oblanceolate or oblong-oblanceolate, rhombic-oblanceolate, oblong, elliptic, or ovate, to spatulate, sometimes oblong-triangular, 1.5-12(-17) × 0.5-4(-6) cm, 1-5 mm thick, base 0.5-3 cm wide, apex acute to acuminate or cuspidate or subobtuse, surfaces sometimes farinose, mostly glaucous. Inflorescences: cyme 2-4-branched, mostly obpyramidal; branches not twisted (flowers on topside), simple or 1-3 times bifurcate, less often also with lateral branches; cincinni 1-2(-3+), 1-6(-20)-flowered, circinate, 1-5(-17) cm; floral shoots 4-30(-50) × 0.1-0.8 cm; leaves 5-25(-50), spreading to ascending, blade cordate-ovate to triangular-lanceolate, 4-20(-50) × 4-10(-15) mm, apex acute to acuminate. Pedicels erect, not bent in fruit, usually 5-15 mm. Flowers: calyx 3-6 × 3-6 mm; petals connate 1-2.5 mm, pale or bright yellow, mustard yellow, or red, 7-14 × 1.5-4.5 mm, apex mostly narrowly acute, tips often outcurved; pistils connivent, erect. Unripe follicles erect. 2n = 34.
Home