Pedicularis howellii

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Pedicularis howellii, or Howell's lousewort, is an uncommon flowering plant in the broom family Orobanchaceae. It grows only in the Siskiyou Mountains of the Klamath Range, in southern Oregon and northern California, along the edges of conifer forests. This perennial herb has one or more stems up to 45 cm tall from a long rootstock. Leaves can reach about 20 cm, are lance-shaped, and divided into many toothed lobes; higher leaves may be unlobed, and the lowest leaves fall off early. At the top of the stem is a small cluster of flowers. Each white to light purple bloom is about 1 cm long, sickle-shaped with a curved upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip that may tuck into the hairy sepals. Bumblebees, including Bombus mixtus, pollinate the flowers. Between the flowers are hairy triangular bracts. The fruit is a capsule just under 1 cm long containing seeds with netted surfaces. The plant likely depends on snowmelt to keep the soil moist for germination in the next growing season.