Roan Mountain Bluet

Houstonia montana (Chickering) Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 1325
1903.
Houstonia purpurea montana Chickering; Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 1325, as synonym. 1903.
Erect perennial, 6-20 cm. high, the stems usually numerous, stout, simple, or sparsely branched above, obtusely quadrangular, glabrous, the internodes mostly shorter than the leaves; stipules 2 mm. long or shorter, scarious, broadly triangular, rounded at the apex,_ entire, purplish; cauline leaves sessile, oval, broadly ovate, or ovate-oblong, 1-2.5 cm. long, 4-12 mm. wide, rounded to very acute at the apex, broadly rounded to obtuse at the base, glabrous, or scaberulous above along the costa, scaberulo-ciliolate, paler beneath, mostly 1 -nerved, the lateral nerves obsolete; flowers few, in a small dense leafy terminal cyme, the pedicels 6 mm. long or shorter; hypanthium about 1.5 mm. long at anthesis, glabrous; calyx-lobes ovateoblong or lance-oblong, acute, less than twice as long as the hypanthium, in fruit longer than the capsule; corolla funnelform, 9-1 1 mm. long, purple, glabrous outside, the lobes ovate-oval or oblong-ovate, obtuse, whitevillous within, more than half as long as the tube; anthers exserted; capsule subglobose, 3 mm. long, usually broader than long, slightly compressed, half inferior, retuse at the apex, the free portion glabrous; seeds concavo-convex, oval, about 1.3 mm. long, peltate, scrobiculate, black.
Type locality: Summit of Roan Mountain, North Carolina.
Distribution: Summits of the highest mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.