Shrub to 1 m, with upright branches, variable in pubescence; lvs oval to oblong, 2-8 cm, usually widest above the middle, obtuse or rounded at the tip, veiny, hairy beneath; peduncles axillary, 3-10 mm; bracts narrow, often much exceeding the ovaries; bractlets wholly concrescent into a cupule closely surrounding and ripening with the ovaries, the cal barely emerging; cor 10-15 mm, yellowish, gibbous at base, the 5 subequal lobes about equaling the tube; style glabrous; fr blue; 2n=18. Swamps and wet woods; ±circumboreal, in Amer. from Lab. to Mack., s. to Pa., Mich., Minn., and Calif. May-July. Ours may be called var. villosa (Michx.) Torr. & A. Gray. (L. villosa)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.