Cordylanthus Kingii, Heller's Bird's Beak

Cordylanthus kingii has a scattered distribution from east California (east of the Sierra Nevada) to far east Utah, extending to the Kaibab Plateau of northern Arizona. Stems, leaves and bracts are moderately to densely covered by spreading, glandular hairs. Leaves are divided into very narrow, linear, well-separated lobes. Leaves may be tinged reddish purple, while the upper stem bracts are more generally purple.

Bracts are divided into three or five narrow lobes, lanceolate to linear, all approximately equal in width; the outer lobes are divided more deeply. Flowers are similar in length to the bracts; they contain four stamens with hairy filaments and two-lobed anthers. The two-lipped corolla is up to 1.2 inches long, yellow to pink or reddish-purple in color, with a dense covering of white hairs.

Two varieties are var helleri of California and Nevada, characterised by dense pubescence and relatively short, more lanceolate bract divisions, and var kingii of Nevada and Utah; this has longer, thread-like bract lobes and a sparser covering of hairs.