Otiophora caerulea (Hiern) Bullock

Perennial herb 11.5–45 cm. tall, with 3–5 erect shoots from each part of a divided woody rootstock; stems with 2 narrow rows of short bristly hairs on opposite sides or hairy all over.. Leaves paired or occasionally appearing pseudoverticillate if short axillary shoots remain undeveloped; blades linear, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, (0.7–)1.7–5 cm. long, (0.1–)0.2–1.1(–1.7) cm. wide, acute at the apex, cuneate at the base, often drying a characteristic yellowish tinge, glabrous, sessile; stipules ± pubescent, with (1–)2–3 lanceolate or subulate segments (if 1 then with short lateral lobes) 1–5 mm. long from a short broad base, which is adnate to the leaf-bases, and sometimes with small lobes between the main lobes.. Flowers in compact heads 1.2(–2.5) cm. long, 1.3–3(–4) cm. wide, terminating the main and axillary branches and branchlets.. Calyx-tube ovoid or subglobose, ± 1 mm. long and wide, glabrous; lobes 5, either 1 large foliaceous lobe and 4 short setiform ones, 2 large foliaceous lobes and 3 short setiform ones, or 2 longer foliaceous lobes, 1 subfoliaceous lobe and 2 short setiform ones; foliaceous lobes linear to lanceolate, 0.5–2 mm. wide, acute, glabrous or somewhat ciliate; setiform lobes 1.5–3 mm. long, somewhat bristly.. Corolla blue to mauve or mauve-pink; buds with limb abruptly expanded into an ovoid or subcylindrical head, glabrous or slightly hairy; tube narrowly filiform, (0.5–)0.7–1.2 cm. long, 0.25 mm. wide; lobes lanceolate, (4–)5–6 mm. long, 0.75–1 mm. wide, glabrous or slightly hairy outside.. Stamens 5, ± equalling the corolla-lobes; filaments glabrous.. Style filiform, stigma bifid, lobes filiform, up to 3 mm. long; style and stigma together exserted 4–6 mm.. Fruits subglobose, 1.5–3 mm. long and wide, glabrous.. Seeds dark brownish, subglobose, ± 1.5 mm. in diameter, granulate, with a slight dorsal keel and a circular depression surrounding the hilum.