Collinsia parviflora (Blue-eyed Mary) - photos and description
Patch of many plants
Origin: Native.
General: Small annual plant, single-stemmed to branching growth habit. Very short hairs on lower stem, rest of plant glabrous. Stems reddish-purple.
Flowers: Flowers are irregular, with a cleft lip, bluish-white, we measured a flower at 7 mm long and 2 mm wide. Flowers appear on long stalks in leaf axils.
Leaves: Lower leaves are opposite, while upper leaves grow in whorls. Leaves have short petioles, leaf shape is lanceolate to obovate, we measured a stem leaf at 20 mm long and 6 mm wide.
Height: Height listed in Flora of Alberta to 30 cm, we measured plants to 10 cm tall.
Habitat: Wooded slopes and disturbed soil in the Cypress Hills.
Abundance: Provincially rare, ranked as an S3 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre. Fairly common on rocky slopes in the Cypress Hills.
When and where photographed: Above photos taken May 8th, May 19th, and May 31st on wooded slopes and a sunny stony, roadside in the Cypress Hills, about 450 km southwest of our home in Regina, SK.