Flower:

Flowers are in a thick spike up to 3½ inches long at the top of the stem. Individual flowers are yellow, rarely reddish brown, ½ to 1 inch long, tubular with the upper lip longest and curving over the lower lip like a hood. The lower lip may be white.

The leafy bracts are lobed and toothed, with long hairs around the edges. The bracts are twisted so that the flowers are turned sideways. From the top of the plant the arrangement resembles a pinwheel.

Leaves and stem:

Leaves are mostly basal, up to 6 inches long and 2 inches wide, with many deeply cut, toothed, rounded, often wavy lobes around the edges and a long stalk sparsely covered in long white hairs. A few leaves much smaller than the basal leaves are also alternately attached on the stem. The main stem is densely hairy. Leaves and stem may be green or tinged red.

Fruit:

Fruit is an angular capsule about ½ inch long, containing many small seeds.

Notes:

Wood Betony tends to grow in clumps and is partially parasitic; common host plants are asters and native grasses. The leaves and flowers are similar to related species Swamp Lousewort (P. lanceolata) but that is a larger plant, has opposite leaves with shallower lobes, and doesn't bloom until August. All of the Pedicularis species were formerly in family Scrophulariaceae (Figwort) but have been reassigned to Orobanchaceae (Broomrape) along with other parasitic plants.