[2][3] It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California to Colorado, where it emerges during the spring in wet areas such as meadows.

This is an annual herb producing a very thin, erect stem to 30 centimeters in maximum height.

Leaves are occasional along the stem and are heart-shaped to rounded with a toothed edge.

Also at occasions along the stem are the flowers, which emerge from a base of toothed or spiny leaflike sepals a few millimeters long.

The corolla of the flower is a cylindrical tube 3 to 5 millimeters long, blue or lavender with darker veining and a lighter throat, and spreading into triangular lobes at the mouth.