Low shrubs or sub-shrubs, 15-40 cm tall; stems much-branched, ascending to erect, often reddish and brittle, smooth to minutely hairy on new growth and glandular-hairy in the inflorescence.
Mostly opposite, more or less evergreen, smooth, primary leaves tending to be concentrated toward the base and on short sterile shoots, short-stalked, the blades linear to broadly lanceolate, toothed or entire, 1-6 cm long; leaves of the flowering shoots reduced and less crowded.
Inflorescence a short, bracted, terminal raceme of a few pairs of stalked flowers, the stalks hairy; corollas blue-lavender to light purple, tubular, 2.5-5 cm long, distinctly 2-lipped, smooth on the outside, long-white-hairy within on the lower lip near its base and on a pair of ridges; calyces 7-15 mm long, hairy, 5-lobed, the lobes lance-linear to narrowly egg-shaped; fertile stamens 4, the anthers densely white-woolly; sterile stamen shorter than the fertile stamens, long-yellow-bearded toward the tip.
Capsules, 8-12 mm long; seeds numerous, angled, narrowly winged, 1-2 mm long.
Two sympatric varieties occur in BC.
1. Leaves entire or slightly fine-toothed, relatively broad, 2-7 times as long as wide; corollas 2.5-4 cm long....................var. fruticosus
1. Leaves more or less toothed or sometimes entire, relatively narrow, 6-10 times as long as wide; corollas 3.5-5 cm long....................var. scouleri (Lindl.) Cronq.