The beautiful showy purple or violet trumpets of this rather common Beard-tongue are found from May to July in dry, open woods and rocky fields and thickets. The stalk rises from one to three feet high, and is slender and downy, with fine whitish hairs. The slightly toothed, pointed oblong to lance-shaped light green leaves are somewhat woolly, and vary in size and shape as they mount the stalk in opposite pairs. The upper ones are clasping, and the lower ones are stemmed. The flowers are borne in a loose terminal spike. The five sharply pointed sepals are overlapping. The tube of the corolla is gradually swelled above, and has two grooves on the lower side. The upper lip is two-lobed, and the lower one is three-cleft. At the base of the latter is a hairy palate that nearly closes the throat. One of the stamens is densely bearded for half its length. This species ranges from Maine to Manitoba, south to the Gulf States.