PLANT: Shortlived perennial, 20-100 cm tall, simple to branched at base; stems with short glandular hairs, often with short, curly nonglandular hairs below.

LEAVES: subglabrous to short-pilose, deeply lobed.

INFLORESCENCE: diffuse to one-sided, with subsessile to short-pedicelled flowers on lateral branches.

FLOWER: calyx 3-8 mm long, short-glandular pubescent, the lobes shorter than or equal to the tube and acuminate in AZ; corolla usually scarlet, the tube 15-30 mm long, the throat 3-6 mm wide, the lobes lanceolate, acuminate, often with dark red flecks; stamens inserted unequally above the mid-tube; filaments unequal; anthers located in the throat or exserted; stigma slightly exceeding the anthers.

CAPSULE: 8-12 mm long; seeds 5-10 per locule.

NOTES: Ca. 7 subspp.; w N. Amer.

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

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous biennials to perennials, to 1 m tall, stems erect and branching from the base, herbage glabrous to glandular-hairy with short, curly, non-glandular hairs below.

Leaves: Alternate, basal pinnate-9-11-lobed and 3-5 cm long, withered at flowering, cauline 5-7-lobed, reduced distally, blade lobes generally small-pointed at the tips and with glabrous to puberulent or short-pilose surfaces.

Flowers: Bright red with yellow mottling on the throat, lobe, and bases, corollas with long tubes and 5 apical, flaring lobes, corolla tubes 20-30 mm long, throats 3-6 mm wide, lobes lanceolate, with acute to acuminate tips, sepals 5, fused at base, with a translucent membrane generally connecting lobes, calyxes generally bell-shaped, 3-8 mm long, with membranous tubes and sinuses, glabrous to hairy, lobes generally small-pointed at tips, stamens inserted unequally above the mid-tube, filaments unequal; anthers located in the throat or exserted, stigmas slightly exceeding the anthers, styles exserted, flowers borne in lateral, compact or diffuse clusters, sometimes one-sided, subsessile to short-pedicelled.

Fruits: Capsules 8-12 mm long. Seeds slender, angled and winged, white to light brown, 5-10 per locule.

Ecology: Found in open coniferous forests, from 5,000-8,500 ft (1524-2591 m); flowering May-September.

Distribution: Montana to British Columbia, south to New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

Notes: This species has lovely red flowers with long tubes and 5 spreading, flattened lobes with acuminate tips. Look for it in mountainous areas.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Etymology: Ipomopsis comes from the Greek ipo, "to strike," and opsis, "appearance," thus of striking appearance, and aggregata means "flocking together," or growing in groups, clustered.