Flower:

The flowers are saucer-shaped to tubular, about 1/8 inch across, light blue to white, with five round petals and a ring of white, arch-shaped appendages around the throat. The sepals are egg-shaped and shorter than the petals. The blossoms open progressively along slender, horizontal racemes at the tips of of the branches; racemes elongate up to 6 inches as the plant matures. A larger leaf-like bract is set at the base of the raceme with subsequent bracts becoming smaller and alternating with the flowers until about the middle of the raceme; beyond the middle they are absent.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are 2 to 5 inches long, up to 1¼ inch wide, toothless, hairy with a rough texture on the upper surface. Basal leaves are oblong with a rounded tip, and stalked. Stem leaves are alternate, narrowly lance-elliptic, tapered equally at both ends with a pointed or blunt tip, the lower leaves short stalked, the upper leaves becoming progressively smaller and stalkless. Stems are erect, typically single but much branched with short fine hairs throughout.

Fruit:

Fruits are round, wider than the flower but less than ¼ inch in diameter, divided into four nutlets with dense velcro-like prickles along the edge of the outer (dorsal) surface, but not covering the surface.

Notes:

One of a number of sticky seed plants that can be encountered during late summer or autumn hikes through the fields and woods, it is perhaps academic which species is which as you are picking them off your pant legs or combing them out of pet hair. The very closely related and similar appearing Virginia stickseed (Hackelia virginiana) can easily be differentiated by its broader leaves, softer hairs, and sticky barbs that cover the entire outer surface of the nutlet rather than just around the edges. One should also note that H. deflexa's flower color is typically a deeper blue and its bloom period begins and ends a month earlier than H. virginiana. There are 2 varieties of H. deflexa, with var. americana found in North America, obsolete Latin names being Hackelia americana and Lappula deflexa. While not an uncommon species in Minnesota and not well documented anywhere, we had no luck hunting this species down to get images for this web site. We considered ourselves lucky to find a volunteer plant sprouting up next to the dryer vent. Wonder how it got there?