Flower:

Slender-stalked flowers along many branching stems, with 2 flowers per node and a leaf-like bract at the base of each stalk. Flowers are up to about ½ inch (1 to 1.5 cm) across with 5 pink to purple, finely hairy rounded lobes, fused into a shallow cup-like tube that is white with pinkish purple spots on the inside. The 2 upper lobes form a hood over the white stamens, with the lower 3 lobes slightly larger and more spreading.

The calyx cupping the flower has 5 short, sharply triangular teeth. Flower stalks are hairless, ¼ to 1 inch (5 to 25 mm) long; bracts are hairless, linear and may be longer or shorter than the stalk. Each flower only lasts a day before falling off and only a few flowers per branch bloom at a time.

Leaves and stem:

Leaves are opposite, lance-linear, 3/8 to 2¾ inches (1 to 7 cm) long, less than ¼ inch (.3 to 6 mm) wide, toothless, hairless, stalkless, with a prominent central vein, and may have smaller leaves in the axil (fascicles). Stems are much branched, angled and smooth. Leaves and stems can turn dark reddish purple in drier conditions.

Fruit:

Fruit is a globular capsule about ¼ inch (4 to 7 mm) across, containing many tan to brown seeds.

Notes:

Slender-leaved False Foxglove is a fine wispy plant that appears as a mist of flowers among the other grasses, sedges and forbs of the wet meadows it inhabits. As an annual it is not until later summer that its size fills in and stands out for the wanderer. It is easily confused with other Agalinis species as it can share the same habitat. The flowers of A. purpurea and A. paupercula have much shorter flower stalks, only ¼ inch long or less. While the rare Round-stem False Foxglove (A. gattingeri) has similarly long flower stalks, the leaf-like bract at the base of the stalk is consistently shorter than the stalk, flowers tend to be only 1 per node, and is found in dry habitats.

Agalinis spp. is partially parasitic, though it is unknown (to me) which species are host plants. This trait has moved the Agalinis genus from the Scrophulariaceae (Figwort) family to the Orobanchaceae (Broomrape) family.