General: Perennial, 10-60 cm tall; stems clustered; herbage usually glabrous, sometimes villous; caudex thick, somewhat woody.

Leaves: Mostly basal, some cauline, alternate, pinnatifid, 3-12 (20) cm long, the cauline blades progressively reduced, margins of the segments strongly toothed, the teeth tipped white; blades petiolate.

Flowers: Inflorescence a compressed spike-like raceme, usually surpassed by the leaves, few-flowered, leafy-bracted, the bracts reduced upwards; calyx 15-22 mm long, 5-lobed, the lobes linear to narrowly lanceolate, margins serrate, ciliate; corolla 30-42 mm long, pale violet, the galea 10-18 mm long, beakless, dark tipped, the lower lip with broadly rounded lobes, dark tipped; anthers conspicuously awned at the base, the awns projecting like teeth from the galea; flowers April-June.

Fruits: Loculicidal capsule, 10-14 mm long, asymmetrical.

Ecology: Moist alpine to subalpine meadows; 2300-3700 m (7500- 12000 ft); Apache, Coconino, Greenlee, and Navajo counties; western and southwestern U.S.

Notes: Pedicularis procera (giant lousewort) [=P. grayi] can be distinguished by its much larger leaves (which vegetatively can be mistaken for fern fronds and can be up to 30 cm long), a larger (25-36 mm long), pale yellow corolla, sometimes streaked with red, and a beakless galea. It occurs in coniferous forests in the White Mountains of Apache County. Pedicularis groenlandica (pink elephants, elephant-s head) is 10-70 cm tall; leaves are mostly basal, pinnatifid, 3-17 cm long, the margins of the segments dentate to crenate, the teeth sometimes tipped white; spikes are dense, subtended by narrow bracts; calyx is 3.5-5.5 mm long, 5-lobed; corolla is 6-8 mm long (not including the beak) violet to purple, the galea prolonged into an elongate, recurved beak, as long as or longer than the remainder of the corolla, the corolla resembling an elephant-s head. It occurs in montane and alpine meadows, along streams and in forests in the White Mountains of Apache County.

Editor: Springer et al. 2008