Pacific Hound's Tongue

Description:

Cynoglossum grande is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common name Pacific hound's tongue. It is a perennial herb producing an erect stem 30 to 90 centimeters tall from a taproot. The leaves are mostly located around the base of the plant, each with an oval blade up to 15 centimeters long held on a petiole. The inflorescence is a panicle of flowers on individual pedicels. Each five-lobed flower is bright to deep blue with white appendages at the center. It is 1 to 1.5 centimeters wide. The fruit is an array of four slightly bristly nutlets.

Habitat:

It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in shady areas in woodland and chaparral. On the forest floor of California oak woodlands typical plant associates are Calochortus luteus, Delphinium variegatum and Calochortus amabilis.