Perennial strongly smelling herbs, with opposite leaves and paniculate heads of small pink or white, funnel-form, more or less gibbous flowers, commonly with 3 exserted stamens.
Erect, perfectly smooth throughout or the inflorescence minutely hairy, 8—16 inches high. Basal, leaves petioled, spatulate or oval, 1—5 inches long, entire; stem leaves usually 3 pairs, the lower petioled, the upper sessile, segments, 5—7 oval or linear-lanceolate, entire or merely undulate on the margins. Flowers cymose-paniculate, usually congested; corolla white, about ¼ of an inch long; fruit smooth, ⅛ of an inch or slightly longer.
In moist shaded places and on slopes in the lower valleys of the Rockies; flowering in July.
Smooth throughout; stem rather stout, 1—3 feet high. Leaves, the basal on long petioles, oblong, 1—2 inches long, 3-lobed, the centre one much the largest, oblong, tapering to both ends, the lateral lanceolate; stem leaves, 2—4 pairs pinnately parted in 5—7 lanceolate, acute, entire, or undulate segments, 1—2 inches long. Flowers pink in a flat, cymose panicle, 2—2½ inches broad; corolla nearly ¼ of an inch long, funnel-form; stamens and style exserted.
In moist open ground throughout the Rockies at the higher elevations; flowering during June and early July.
Smooth; stems rather stout, 1—5 feet high, often branching. Leaves in 2—4 pairs, pinnately 3—5-lobed, leaflets ovate to oblong or lanceolate, acuminate, coarsely dentate, 1—2 inches long, densely white-hairy at the base of the petioles; basal leaves lacking at the time of flowering. Flowers very fragrant, pink, in a compact cymose panicle, corolla broad, funnel-form, ¼ of an inch long with spreading rounded lobes; stamens and style much exserted.
Common along the streams and in damp places in the Selkirks, at times forming vast masses of pink when in flower in June and early July.
Valeriana sitchensis Bong. (⅓ Nat.)
Wild Heliotrope.
Lobelia Kalmii strictiflora Rydb. (Nat.)
Brook Lobelia.