Flora of North America species comparison

2-80 cm, tuberlike or fibrous, dry or fleshy;

buds often less than 3 mm.

10-40(-70) cm;

base often reddish, glabrous to puberulent.

1-8(-19) per root;

base firmly attached to root or not.

blade round, 1-4 × 1.5-7 cm, glabrous to puberulent; ultimate lobes 3-19, width 1-8 mm (basal), 1-3 mm (cauline).

cauline and/or in basal rosette, gradually or abruptly reduced into bracts.

3-12(-22)-flowered;

pedicel 1-4(-8) cm, ± puberulent;

bracteoles 2-7(-17) mm from flowers, green, sometimes white-margined, lanceolate, 4-6(-8) mm, puberulent.

sepals dark blue, puberulent, lateral sepals usually spreading, 16-21 × 6-12 mm, spurs straight to gently decurved, ascending 0-40° above horizontal, 13-23 mm;

lower petal blades covering stamens, 7-12 mm, clefts 0.1-3 mm;

hairs sparse, short, mostly on inner lobes below junction of blade and claw, white or yellow.

sepals blue, purple, white, red, or yellow;

lower petal blades often same color as lateral sepals, usually greater than 1/5 length of lateral sepals (exceptions in red- and yellow-flowered species).

(12-)16-22 mm, 4-4.5 times longer than wide, usually puberulent.

often winged;

seed coat cells with surfaces ± smooth.