Scrophulariaceae Tribe Pedicularieae (Rhinantheae) Bartsia L. [subdivided into Section Bartsia by Molau (1990) and his description of the species is incorporated in the following account]. A tufted perennial hemiparasitic herb with a short woody subterranean rhizome bearing, often abundantly at the nodes, adventitious roots with sparse root hairs. Haustoria develop on those adventitious roots in contact with neighbouring roots of host plants. The aerial shoots annual, erect or ascending, 8-30(-40) cm tall, unbranched or with a few short lateral branches, the stems pilose to hirsute with retrorse, white eglandular hairs. Leaves 10-25 x 615 mm, remote, decussate, sessile, herbaceous or subcoriaceous, ovate, apex obtuse to subacute, rounded to truncate at base, glabrous and rugose above, pilose to hirsute beneath, margins crenate-serrate. Inflorescence relatively loose, terminal with (1-)4-8(-11) floral nodes; bracts like the leaves but decreasing in size upwards, dull purple, exceeding the calyx; flowers 17-22 mm long, shortly pedicellate. Calyx green, often suffused with purple, glandular-hirsute with violet hairs, 610 mm long, tubular-campanulate, 4-cleft; the lobes narrowly triangular, obtuse to acute, entire, about as long as the tube or shorter. Corolla 15-20 mm, with a cylindrical tube and 2-lipped limb, violet or deep purple; upper lip entire or emarginate, longer than the lower; lower lip 3-lobed. Stamens 4, didynamous; anthers hairy, equally mucronate at the base. Style 1420 mm long, pale violet, straight, decurved at apex; the stigma capitate ? exserted. Capsule narrowly ovoid, about twice as long as the calyx, hirsute, held ? erect in fruit, dehiscing into two valves, many-seeded. Seeds winged, 0.7-1.6 mm long, with mass 0.08-0.19 mg. Bartsia alpina shows rather little variation. Several forms with deviating corolla pigmentation appear occasionally throughout the distributional range but are of no taxonomical value: the yellow-flowered var. jensenii Lange described from Greenland, f. ochroleuca Blytt from Norway, and the rose-coloured var. pallida Wormskj. ex Lange from Greenland, also observed at Abisko, northern Sweden. None of these has been reported from the British Isles. Most variation is in shoot size and leaf dimensions