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Perennials 20-90 cm tall. Taproot sturdy. Stems erect or ascendant, branched from base, woody at base. Leaves alternate, linear to linear-lanceolate, 2-4 cm × 1-5 mm, 1(or 3)-veined from base, base attenuate, apex acute. Flowers numerous, in racemose cymes, ca. 2 cm in diam., heterostylous. Pedicel 1-2.5 cm, erect or slightly excurved. Sepals ovate, 3.5-5 mm, 5-or 7-veined, margin entire; outer 3 sepals with apex acute; inner 2 sepals with apex obtuse. Petals blue to bluish purple, obovate, 1-1.8 cm. Styles distinct; stigma capitate. Capsule subglobose, 3.5-8 mm in diam., septicidal. Seeds brown, elliptic, flattened, 3.5-4 × ca. 2 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 18.
Perennial, 3–7 dm, the stems mostly clustered; lvs erect, very numerous, linear, 1–3 cm, 1-nerved, or obscurely 3-nerved at base; fls heterostylic; sep ovate, 5–7 mm, obtuse and minutely mucronate, entire; pet blue, 12–23 mm; staminodes subulate or tooth-like, 1 mm; stigmas ellipsoid-capitate; fr 5–9 mm, ovoid-globose, scarcely beaked, the 10 segments acute or shortly acuminate; false septa incomplete, long-ciliate; 2n=18. Native of Europe, occasionally intr. in disturbed habitats in our range, as in Wis. and Mich., where it has been mistaken for the closely allied homostylic cordilleran sp. L. lewisii Pursh. May–July.
A tufted low herb. It grows 30-45 cm tall and spreads 30 cm wide. The leaves are 1-3 mm wide. The flowers are blue. The petals are 3-4 times longer than the sepals. They are 25 mm across.
