Stems few or solitary from a fibrous-rooted perennial base, mostly simple to the infl, 8-30 cm, glabrous or short-hairy; basal lvs ±numerous, persistent, petiolate, lanceolate to obovate, conspicuously ciliate; cauline lvs sessile, narrowly oblong to lanceolate or oblanceolate, 1-3 cm, glabrous or sparsely (rarely more densely) hairy, usually ciliate; infls terminal, small, few-fld; fls heterostylic; sep lance- linear, 1.8-3 mm; cor purple, hairy within, 5-9 mm, funnelform, the lobes more than half as long as the tube; stamens included or barely exserted; fr globose or depressed-globose, half-inferior, 2.5-3.5 mm; seeds meniscoid, with a ridge across the hollowed inner face; 2n=12, 14. Rocky woods and hillsides; Me. and s. Ont. to Minn., s. to sw. Va., Tenn. and Ark. May, June. (Houstonia c.; Houstonia ciliolata; Houstonia setiscaphia)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.