Plants sparsely glandular-puberulent or minutely glandular. Leaves 2-10(-13) × (0.3-)0.5-2 cm; blade oblanceolate to elliptic. Pedicels usually glandular, rarely sparsely glandular-puberulent. Flowers: calyx glabrous and often minutely glandular at least on margins or sparsely glandular-puberulent; corolla lobes usually magenta to lavender, rarely white, 8-15(-18) mm, tube yellow with reddish, thin, wavy ring; filament tube yellow, 1-2(-2.5) mm; anthers 3.5-6 mm; pollen sacs yellow, connective maroon.

Flowering late spring-early summer. Flats and slopes often on limestone mainly in grassland and sagebrush communities, oak and/or conifer woodlands; 1200-2000(-2800) m; S.Dak., Wyo.

Variety distolum is found primarily on both sides of the Powder River Basin syncline in the Big Horn Mountains to the west and the Black Hills of northeastern Wyoming and adjacent west-central South Dakota in the east. Isolated populations occur at Devils Tower in Crook County, Wyoming.