PLANT: 3-25 cm tall; stems erect to decumbent, simple to branching near the base, white, tan or yellow green, short pubescent below, sparsely to densely villous above. LEAVES: 8-22 mm long, the rachis flattened, the lobes 4-8, linear, simple or some forked. INFLORESCENCE: terminal, compact, subcapitate, the bracts similar to the upper cauline leaves. FLOWERS: subsessile; calyx 6-8 mm long, the tube short pubescent to villous, especially at the top, the lobes simple or some forked; corolla white to bluish, 4-7 mm long; stamens inserted on the upper tube; filaments 1-1.5 mm long; anthers exserted; style slightly exserted; stigmatic lobes mostly 2, situated below the anthers. CAPSULE mostly 1-2-locular, indehiscent except when wet; seeds 4-8 per locule. —2 subspp.; w N. Amer. REFERENCES: Dieter H. Wilken and J. Mark Porter, 2005, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Polemoniaceae. CANOTIA 1: 1-37.
General: Annual, usually 3-10 cm tall; stems erect to decumbent, simple to branched, white, tan, yellow, or green, puberulent below, more-or-less villous in the inflorescence; taprooted. Leaves: Mostly cauline, alternate, simple and linear to more often pinnatifid or twice pinnatifid, 8-22 mm long, with 4-8 linear segments, these spine-tipped. Flowers: Solitary or more often in pairs at the ends of stems and branches, one nearly sessile, the other evidently pedicellate; calyx 3-8 mm long, glandular, membranes between the lobes rupturing in fruit, the lobes then spreading to reflexed, appearing star-shaped; corolla salverform, 5-15 mm long, white to bluish lavender, the throat sometimes yellowish, the tube 4-8 mm long, the lobes 1-2 mm long; flowers March-August. Fruits: Capsule, ovoid to obovoid, 1-2 locular, indehiscent or tardily dehiscent; seeds several. Ecology: Ephemerally moist sites, pond and lake margins, meadows, pine forests; 1800-2600 m (6000-8500 ft); Coconino, Navajo, and Yavapai counties; western Canada, north- central, western, and southwestern U.S. Notes: Ours, as here described, is ssp. propinqua. Navarretia breweri (Brewer-s navarretia, yellow navarretia) is distinguished by its reddish brown stems; leaves are distinctly pinnatifid, firm, prickly; calyx lobes are glabrous to sparsely pubescent; corolla is yellow; and stigmas are 3. In Arizona, it is apparently only known from Coconino and Mohave counties (the Mount Trumbull area and Navajo Mountain). Editor: Springer et al. 2008
