Delicate perennial with very slender, fragile rhizomes, eventually forming clumps to 1 dm wide, but apparently blooming the first year and thus potentially annual; lower lvs oblanceolate to spatulate, 5-12 mm, narrowed to a petiole often as long; upper lvs subsessile, oblong-spatulate to linear; peduncles erect, slender, terminal and from the upper axils, 2-7 cm, 1-fld; fls heterostylic; sep narrowly oblong, 1-2 mm, acute; cor typically rather light blue-lavender with a pale yellow eye, salverform, the tube 5-10 mm, glabrous within, the limb 10-14 mm wide; stamens included; fr didymous-flattened, 3-4 mm wide, much broader than long; seeds globular, with a deep round cavity occupying the inner face; 2n=16, 32, 48. Moist soil and meadows; N.S. and Que. to Wis., s. to Ga. and Ark. Apr.-June. (Houstonia c.; Houstonia faxonorum)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
