PLANT: Annuals; stems erect to prostrate.

LEAVES: mostly alternate, sometimes opposite below, twice pinnately lobed in AZ, the lobes narrow, rigid, and spinulose.

INFLORESCENCE: terminal and axillary, compact, capitate, bracteate, the bracts pinnately to palmately lobed, villous to glandular, spinulose.

FLOWERS: actinomorphic, sessile; calyx membranes usually remaining intact in fruit, the lobes usually unequal, linear to acuminate, spinulose; corolla (4)5-merous, salverform to funnelform, white, yellow or blue; stamens inserted at the same level on the upper tube or throat; filaments mostly equal in length; anthers included in the throat or exserted; style included or slightly exserted, the stigmatic lobes 2-3, short or obscure.

CAPSULE: ovoid to ellipsoid, dehiscent to indehiscent; seeds 1-7 per locule, gelatinous when wet.

NOTES: ca 30 spp. of w N. Amer.; 1 sp. in s S. Amer. (for Francisco Fernandez Navarrete, Spanish botanist, physician).

REFERENCES: Dieter H. Wilken and J. Mark Porter, 2005, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Polemoniaceae. CANOTIA 1: 1-37.