Authors: Nutt.  

Botanical Description

ex A. Gray. [3-4] Densely mat-forming with prostrate stems 2-8cm long. Leaves entire, linear to obovate or spathulate, 4-10mm long, puberulent with retrorsely curved hairs. Flowers 1-1.7cm long, blue to blue-violet. Sandy or clay soils in sagebrush, juniper, pinyon-juniper, oak, and ponderosa pine communities at 1500-2600m in Wyoming and Colorado, Utah and the Grand Canyon and Painted Desert regions of Arizona. Wonderful addition to rock garden but subject to die-back. For the alpine house or sunny trough. P.c. var. desertipicti has leaves linearoblanceolate. Paunsaugunt Plateau, Utah to Painted Desert and Grand Canyon regions. [3-4] P.c. var. caespitosus has leaves narrowly oblanceolate, Wyoming to Colorado, and Utah. [3-4] P.c. var. perbrevis has leaves obovate or spathulate. Tavaputs, Wasatch and Aquarius plateaus.