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Botanical Description

Small subshrub, flowering stems to 17cm tall. Leaves narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly obovoid, 1-2.8cm long, entire, usually glabrous. Flowers 1.4-2m long, light to dark blue. Sagebrush, scrub oak, and pinyon-juniper communities at 1800-3000m in Colorado and Utah. Attractive evergreen, heathy mats. P.c. var. crandallii has leaves narrowly oblanceolate, usually glabrous apically, stems ascending to erect. P.c. var. atratus has oblanceolate to obovate leaves, usually scabrid-puberulent, and decumbent stems. La Sal Mts., Utah. P.c. var. procumbens (syn. P. xylus) has decumbent stems and leaves mostly abruptly petiolate, narrowly oblanceolate to elliptic, obovate, or spathulate. P.c. subsp. glabrescens has the leaves linear, up to 3.5cm long on plants up to 30cm tall. Colorado and New Mexico, on dry hills, and open areas among brush and trees at 1750-3500m.