[wildflower.org] Description: Lush white, rose & purple blooms are tiered in whorls near the top of the 2 ft. stalks of this annual. Bilaterally symmetrical flowers in several widely spaced whorls at top of a sparsely leafy stem. The flowers have a lilac or white upper lip and a rose-purple or violet lower lip. Bright-green, lance-shaped leaves clasp the stem. A velvety fuzz often covers the entire plant, including the flowers. Few of California's spectacular wildflowers are as charming as this one. The flowers grow in perfect rings of widely spaced bands around the stem, forming a fairytale pagoda, the "Chinese houses." There are about 20 Collinsia species, most in California, distinguished from other genera by the corolla's folded middle lower lobe. In this respect it resembles members of the Pea Family, which, however, have 5 petals not joined into a tubular base, and usually 10 stamens rather than 4. (link added by Mary Ann Machi)