Distribution: Occurring west of the Cascades crest along the coast in Washington; southwestern British Columbia to California.

Habitat: Margins of coastal salt marshes and brackish areas.

Flowers: June-September

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Annual

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bumblebees, bees, hummingbirds

Slender annual 1-3.5 dm. tall, the stem simple or branched, with short, spreading hairs.

Leaves alternate, all cauline, lanceolate to oblong or ovate, 1-5 cm. long, scabrous-puberulent, the lower leaves mostly entire, the upper with 1 or 2 pairs of short, slender segments.

Flowers in a dense spike, the bracts gradually differentiated from the leaves, becoming cleft into several short, round-tipped segments, these white, yellow or purple; calyx 4-parted and deeply 2-cleft, the bifid tips colored like the bract tips; corolla 14-25 mm. long, yellow with purple markings, two-lipped, narrow, the tube gradually expanded to the saccate lower lip, which has 3 purple teeth 1-3 mm. long; upper lip straight, undivided, 1-2 mm. longer than the teeth on the lower lip; stamens 4, attached near the top of the corolla tube; stigma entire; ovary superior.

Capsule.