Perennial, 3-7 dm, the stems mostly clustered; lvs erect, very numerous, linear, 1-3 cm, 1-nerved, or obscurely 3-nerved at base; fls heterostylic; sep ovate, 5-7 mm, obtuse and minutely mucronate, entire; pet blue, 12-23 mm; staminodes subulate or tooth-like, 1 mm; stigmas ellipsoid-capitate; fr 5-9 mm, ovoid-globose, scarcely beaked, the 10 segments acute or shortly acuminate; false septa incomplete, long-ciliate; 2n=18. Native of Europe, occasionally intr. in disturbed habitats in our range, as in Wis. and Mich., where it has been mistaken for the closely allied homostylic cordilleran sp. L. lewisii Pursh. May-July.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.