Stout, erect, 5–15 dm; lvs thin, narrowly oblong or elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, mostly 8–12 cm, narrowed to a sessile base; racemes crowded, 1–3 dm, the lower bracts lanceolate, foliaceous, to 5 cm, the upper reduced; pedicels ascending, 4–10 mm, bibracteolate at or above the middle; fls 2–3 cm, blue (white), fenestrate, glabrous; sep lanceolate to ovate, 8–12 mm, with foliaceous auricles; 2n=14. Swamps and wet ground; Me. to Man. and Colo., s. to N.C. and Tex. Aug., Sept. The common phase in our range is var. siphilitica, with the herbage, hypanthium, and cal ± hirsute, the lvs mostly 2–6 cm wide, and the fls usually more than 20. The var. ludoviciana DC., glabrous or nearly so, with the lvs seldom over 1.5 cm wide, and the fls 6–20, occurs principally on the Great Plains, extending e. about to the Mississippi R.
Can be grown by cuttings, divisions or seedlings. Seeds needs stratification.
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