Herbs similar to Pedicularis in habit. Leaves pinnately parted or pinnately divided. Inflorescence erect. Calyx 2- lipped, often campanulate. Corolla very strongly 2-lipped, the tube short, the upper lip (galea) produced into an elongated slender beak which is soon turned upward, the lower lip very broad. [Greek, little elephant, referring to the resemblance of the galea of the corolla to an elephant's head.]

Two or three species of northern regions. Type species: Elephantella groenlandica (Retz.) Rydb.

1. Elephantella Groenlandica (Retz.) Rydb. Long-Beaked Pedicularis

Fig. 3854

P. groenlandica Retz. Fl. Scand. Ed. 2, 145. 1795. Elephantella groenlandica Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 1: 363. 1900.

Perennial, glabrous; stem simple, erect, 1°-1 1/2° high. Leaves alternate, lanceolate in outline, acute or acuminate, pinnately parted or the lower pinnately divided into lanceolate, acute, crenulate or incised segments, the upper sessile, the lower slender-petioled, 2'-6' long; spike 1'-6' long, very dense; calyx 5-toothed, nearly as long as the corolla-tube, the teeth short, acutish; corolla red or purple, the galea produced into a filiform beak 6"-8" long, which is decurved against the lower lip and upwardly recurved beyond it; body of the corolla 2 1/2"-3" long; capsule obliquely ovate, about 3" long.

In wet soil, Labrador, Greenland and Hudson Bay to Athabasca, British Columbia, south in the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico, and in the Sierra Nevada to California. Summer.