Erect plant with deeply lobed simple leaves or sometimes divided into several lobed leaflets.
Erect stems, few branches; flower spikes surpassing leaves, petals slightly exceed calyx (leafy whorl of sepals), stamens and style do not exceed the petals; leaf blades narrowly oblong, pinnatifid to pinnately lobed.
Habitat
Open, sandy or gravelly soil in desert mountains and washes, chaparral and pinyon-juniper communities.
Flower Characteristics
The inflorescence is a one-sided curving or coiling cyme (flower cluster with a central terminal flower that develops first, other flowers develop later) of many tiny white to pale lavender bell-shaped flowers with yellowish throats.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
The leaves are oblong in shape and are generally either deeply lobed or divided into several lobed leaflets. Herbage with spreading and glandular hairs.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
The fruit is a capsule about 1/4 inch long containing up to 30 seeds.
Brownish seeds, oblong to spheric with 5 to 8 cross furrows.