Very local. Usually only one or a few plants are found at a place. Seemingly it prefers a slightly acid and gravelly soil and is found on or near the brink of high, gravelly banks of streams. In White County I found it on the east bank of the Tippecanoe River about a mile northeast of Buffalo, where scattered plants were found for about 50 feet and associated with Berberis canadensis and Pedicularis canadensis. Both this species and the Berberis were restricted to the edge of the bank.

Basal lvs ovate, 6-12 cm, crenate or obtusely serrate, rounded to cordate at base, palmately veined, long-petiolate; stems 2-4 dm, hairy; cauline lvs alternate, sessile or nearly so, ovate or oblong, 1-2 cm; infl 5-15 cm; pedicels 1-2 mm; upper cor lip surpassing the villous cal, lower lip about equaling the cal, its middle lobe the smallest; fr 4-7 mm, hirsutulous. Sandy prairies and barrens; Mich. and O. to Minn. and Io., rare and local. May, June. (Synthyris b.; Wulfenia b.)

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

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