Rhizomatous perennial; stems weak but mostly erect, 2-8 dm, retrorsely strigose-puberulent especially along the angles, or less often glabrous or glandular; lvs barely or scarcely petiolate, the blade lanceolate to narrowly ovate-oblong, pinnately veined, mostly blunt-toothed, 2-6 cm נ6-20 mm, truncate-subcordate at base, glabrous above, usually puberulent beneath; fls solitary in the axils of slightly reduced lvs; cal 3.5-4.5 mm; cor blue marked with white, 1.2-2 cm; 2n=32. Wet soil; circumboreal, s. to Del., Ind., Mo., and Calif. June-Aug. (S. epilobiifolia)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
General: Perennial, 20-80 cm tall; stems somewhat weak but erect, simple or branched, strigose-puberulent, particularly on the angles, sometimes glabrous or glandular; rhizomes slender. Leaves: Cauline, opposite, simple, lanceolate to narrowly ovate- oblong, 2-6 cm long, 6-20 mm wide, glabrous above, puberulent to nearly glabrous and paler beneath, margins crenate-serrate to blunt-toothed, base truncate to sub- cordate; petioles 1-4 mm long. Flowers: Inflorescence an elongate raceme, usually with 2 flowers at each node; pedicels 2-3 mm long; bracts subtending the flowers minute, leaf-like, deciduous; calyx 5-7 mm long, enlarging some in fruit, puberulent on the veins, deeply bilabiate, the upper lip broad, abruptly pointed, the lower lip cleft about halfway to the base, the apices also abruptly pointed; corolla 8-12 mm long, blue, central lobe of the lower lip large, broadly rounded, lateral lobes much smaller; stamens 2; flowers July- October. Fruits: Nutlets 4, the surface variously marked. Ecology: Moist meadows, marshes, streambanks, other wetland habitats; 1800-2900 m (6000-9500 ft); Apache, Gila, and Yavapai counties; widely distributed throughout North America. Notes: na Editor: Springer et al. 2008
From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam
Found in marshes about lakes, between dunes, in tamarack bogs, about swamps in woods, and in low borders of dredged ditches. The known specimens of this species restrict its distribution to the lake area of the state. No doubt the report from Clark County should be referred to some other species.