3. Agalinis fasciculata (Elliott) Raf. (fasciculate false foxglove)

Gerardia fasciculata Elliott

Pl. 469 d–f; Map 2145

Plants relatively slender to less commonly broadly bushy, often blackening upon drying, dark green, sometimes purplish- or blackish-tinged. Stems 25–70(–120) cm long, erect, with numerous, ascending to occasionally spreading branches, mostly above the midpoint, circular to bluntly 4-angled toward the base, more strongly angled and ridged above the lower branch points, strongly roughened with moderate to dense, minute, ascending hairs along and between the angles. Primary leaves mostly with well-developed axillary fascicles of leaves, these often nearly as long as (or even longer than) the primary leaves. Leaf blades ascending or arched to curled outward, 10–35(–40) mm long, 1–2(–4) mm wide, linear, entire, the upper surface strongly roughened, the undersurface usually roughened along the midvein. Inflorescences narrow racemes (occasionally appearing as solitary flowers [2 per node] in the axils of foliage leaves), the flower stalks 2–5 mm long at flowering (shorter than to about as long as the calyces), not or only slightly elongating at fruiting, more or less straight and strongly ascending or curved outward. Calyces 3–5(–6) mm long, bell-shaped, slightly longer than wide to about as long as wide at flowering (becoming distended as the fruits mature), the lobes 0.5–1.5(–2.0) mm long, much shorter than the tube, relatively thick and triangular, glabrous, the sinuses between the lobes at flowering broadly U-shaped. Corollas 15–30 mm long, pink to purplish pink or light purple, rarely white, the tube moderately to densely and finely hairy externally, the throat with a pair of longitudinal, pale lines and darker, purple to reddish purple spots, finely pubescent with relatively long, pink to purple, multicellular hairs at the base of the upper lobes, the lobes minutely hairy on the outer surface, fringed along the margins, the upper 2 lobes spreading to somewhat bent backward. Anthers 2.5–3.5 mm long. Fruits 4.5–6.0(–7.0) mm long, globose to subglobose. Seeds 0.6–1.0 mm long, black to dark brown. 2n=28. August–October.

Scattered, mostly in the southern half of the state, most abundantly in the Unglaciated Plains division (eastern [mostly southeastern] U.S. west to Iowa and Texas). Upland prairies (often in swales), savannas, openings and edges of mesic to dry upland forests, banks of streams, fens, and margins of sinkhole ponds; also old fields, ditches, roadsides, and moist, sandy, open disturbed areas.

Occasional white-flowered plants have been called Gerardia fasciculata f. albiflora E.J. Palmer, a name that has not been transferred to Agalinis.