To yellow Pedicularis   To Pedicularis racemosa    To Pedicularis groenlandica

Sub-alpine and alpine.  Rocky areas, wet areas, tundra. Summer.
Stony Pass, July 17, 2010.

This stunning plant is a rare treat in high mountain meadows and on tundra.  As the map below indicates, Pedicularis sudetica is found in just a few counties of a few mountainous states.  But when it is present, you know it immediately.  The only other plant with which it might be confused is Pedicularis groenlandica, another beautifully exotic member of this genus.

Carl von Willdenow named the species Pedicularis sudetica around 1800; Asa Gray named the plant Pedicularis scopulorum (probably in the mid-1800s); and Oskar Hulten gave the presently accepted name of Pedicularis sudetica subspecies scopulorum in the mid-1900s.

"Sudetica" apparently refers to the Sudentland of Czechoslovakia and Poland, most likely the origin of the first collections of P. sudetica.

Pedicularis sudetica subspecies scopulorum. Synonym: Pedicularis scopulorum.
Scrophulariaceae (Snapdragon Family)

Sub-alpine and alpine.  Rocky areas, wet areas, tundra. Summer.
Stony Pass, July 17, 2010.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Pedicularis sudetica subspecies scopulorum