Pedicularis verticillata ("Takaneshiogama")

Japanese name: タカネシオガマ （高嶺塩竃）
Scientific name: Pedicularis verticillata

[Overview]
An annual 5–20 cm tall, found in wind-swept grasslands in the high mountains.
The stem is erect and 4-ridged, branches at the base, and bears short hairs.
The leaves are usually in whorls of 4, rarely 3–6, 0.7–4 cm long and 0.3–1.3 cm wide, narrowly oblong-elliptic and deeply pinnately divided, and hairy on both sides.
The lobes are narrowly ovate with pointed serrations.
The leaves have petioles, which are long on the lower part of the stem and shorter on the upper part.
A short flower spike at the stem tip bears reddish-purple flowers, 3–4 per whorl in several tiers, blooming sideways; the spike has small leaf-like bracts.
The flowers are lip-shaped and 1.5 cm long; the upper lip is boat-shaped, of nearly the same width from base to tip, with a blunt tip, and the lower lip is 3-lobed, spreading, and longer than the upper lip.
The fruit is a lanceolate capsule with a pointed tip, borne slightly upward.

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