Plant: Perennial; herbage long-soft-hairy, becoming ± glabrous; taproot woody, generally topped by a branched caudex covered by persistent petiole bases of previous years; stems several from root crown, erect, 5-40 cm

Leaves: simple, generally in basal rosette, petioled, 2-9 cm, 5-25 mm wide; cauline alternate, smaller upward, lower short-petioled, upper sessile, 6-20 mm, 3-15 mm wide, entire

INFLORESCENCE: cyme, loose, terminal; flowers pedicelled

Flowers: calyx lobes 5, very unequal, outer 3 cordate, 5-9 mm in flower, in fruit 9-25 mm, wide, scarious, veiny, green to purplish, inner 2 ± 4 mm in flower, linear, enlarged in fruit; corolla 4-8 mm, bell-shaped to rotate, white to cream, generally marked lavender; stamens included, unequal, equally attached; ovary chamber 1, style 1, 3-4 mm, tip lobed

Fruit: capsule, 7-9 mm, glabrous; Seeds 4-8, oblong, brown, rough

Misc: Sandy or gravelly desert slopes, flats, mtns, generally in shelter of shrubs; 100-2300 m.; Apr-Jun