Erect, 4-10 dm; lvs thin, opaque, narrowly lanceolate to ovate or broadly elliptic, 8-15 cm, acuminate, finely hairy or glabrous beneath; cymes flat to pyramidal, many-fld; cor-tube 6-10 mm, villous, especially distally; cor-limb 1 cm wide; fr cylindric, erect, 8-12 cm; 2n=32. Moist or wet woods; coastal plain from N.J. southward, more widespread in s. U.S., and n. in the interior to s. Ind., c. Ill., and Kans. May, June. (A. amsonia)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
Diagnostic Traits: Perennial with narrow, alternate leaves; latex present; corolla with deep narrow throat and spreading lobes, blue; ovaries 2; fruits linear; seeds not plumose.
Deam's Flora assigns our populations to var. salicifolia.