Downingia laeta (Bright Downingia) - photos and description
General: Annual plants with showy flowers and a simple to branching growth habit. Plants glabrous.
Flowers: Flowers on long pedicles from leaf axils, pale blue-violet with white and yellow throats. We measured a flower at 7 mm diameter.
Leaves: Leaves sessile, alternate, broadly lanceolate, leaf highlighted in photo above was 1 cm long and 4 mm wide.
Height: Height listed in Flora of Alberta to 20 cm, we measured plants to 16 cm above water.
Habitat: Slough margins and shallow water in southwest Saskatchewan.
Abundance: Very rare, ranked as an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: The above photos were taken August 16th, edge of slough in a cultivated field near Leader, about 400 km west of our home in Regina, SK.