Flower:

Spike-like raceme of short-stalked flowers, 2 per node and a leaf-like bract at the base of each stalk. Flowers are 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) long with 5 pink to purple, finely hairy rounded lobes, fused into a short tube that is pale pink to white with pinkish purple spots on the inside. The 2 upper lobes are usually erect or curving back; the lower 3 lobes are slightly larger and more spreading.

The calyx cupping the flower has a short tube and 5 lobes longer than the tube that are unequal in size and shape. Flower stalks are less than 1/8 inch (.5 to 3 mm) long; the leaf-like bracts are much longer than the stalk and may have 1 or 2 lobes at the base. The calyx, stalks and bracts are all hairy. Each flower only lasts a day before falling off and usually only 2 or 3 blooms are open at a time.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are opposite, ½ to ~2½ inches (1.2 to 6 cm) long, ¼ to ~1 inch (6 to 25 mm) wide, lance to narrowly egg-shaped, variously hairy, toothless and stalkless. Some leaves have 1 or 2 lobes at the base, occasionally also with a few smaller leaves in the axils (fascicles). Stems are usually unbranched, weakly angled to nearly round in cross-section, and sparsely to moderately covered in short stiff hairs with sparse, longer spreading hairs. Leaves and stems often turn dark reddish purple with age.

Fruit:

Fruit is an oval capsule up to ~¾ inch (7 to 20 mm) long, rounded at the tip. Inside are many brown seeds.

Notes:

Earleaf False Foxglove, known in some references as Tomanthera auriculata, is rare throughout its range and reaches the northwest tip of that range in Minnesota. The first record is from Nicollet County in 1892, the second not until 1956 in Dakota County. Biological surveys starting in the 1990s found another dozen or so locations. According to the DNR, habitats have primarily been in prairie remnants, vulnerable to a host of human activities as well as invasive species, and populations at most sites are small with fewer than 50 individuals. While its biology and environmental requirements are not well understood, due to the small population sizes and vulnerable habitat it was listed as Endangered in 1984. It is currently Special Concern in Wisconsin.

While the flowers resemble those of other Agalinis species, the broad leaves, hairiness and (usually) unbranched stems easily distinguish it from the others. The window for catching it in bloom is quite short. Flowers open in the morning and start melting away by afternoon, and the whole plant is done in about a week with the entire population at a site likely finished within 2 weeks.