PLANT: Perennial, herbaceous to woody at base, 5-15 cm tall, simple to branched at base; stems with short, white, woolly-villous hairs.

LEAVES: subglabrous to short woolly, entire to trifid, the central lobe longest.

INFLORESCENCE: a dense terminal head, bracteate; flowers subsessile to sessile.

FLOWER: calyx 4-6 mm long, glandular, the lobes sharply acute; corolla cream, brownish when dry, the tube 5-7 mm long, the throat 0.5-1 mm wide, the lobes acute; stamens equally or unequally inserted on the tube; filaments subequal, short; anthers and stigma included to exserted.

CAPSULE: 3-5 mm long; seeds 1 per locule. 2n=14.

NOTES: 5 subspp. and 2 vars.; w N. Amer.

REFERENCES: Dieter H. Wilken and J. Mark Porter, 2005, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Polemoniaceae. CANOTIA 1: 1-37.