Elephanthead, also called elephantflower, elephant-trunk, elephant- 

 weed, Indian-warrior, and little (or little red) elephant, is a smooth, 

 perennial herb with a simple, erect stem, 6 inches to 2 feet tall, and 

 dissected, fernlike leaves which are alternate on the stem and also 

 crowded in a rosette near the base. The specific name groenlandica, 

 refers to Greenland, where this plant was originally discovered. 

 Most of the common names applied to this plant allude to the 

 resemblance of the reddish or purplish flowers to the head of an 

 elephant, the broad upper lip (galea) of the irregular corolla sug- 

 gesting the elephant's cranium, its prolonged and strongly curved 

 beak being the trunk, and the lower corolla lip the elephant's lower 

 jaw. 



Elephanthead is widely distributed, ranging from Greenland and 

 across the North American continent in the far North from Labra- 

 dor to Alaska, and south, in the western mountain chains, to Cali- 

 fornia and New Mexico. The showy, terminal flower clusters make 

 it a conspicuous plant in wet meadows and grasslands. In the 

 western United States it is characteristic of the higher mountains, 

 ranging from the ponderosa pine belt to above timber line, but it is 

 also occasionally found at somewhat lower levels, and has been col- 

 lected at elevations at least as low as 1,500 feet in Idaho and 3,000 

 feet in Oregon. It prefers moist sites and generally grows in rather 

 rich, clayey, or sandy loam. 



The species ordinarily occurs in tufts or bunches and, although it 

 is a common and very well-known plant, it is seldom abundant. On 

 the whole, its forage value is slight. It is grazed, if at all, during 

 the summer. Its utilization by cattle is negligible. It is sometimes 

 cropped by sheep and goats and is rated in some localities as of poor 

 to (at best) fair palatability for those animals. 



The curious, very distinctive, long-beaked, brightly colored flowers 

 of this species put in their appearance in late June or early July 

 and flowering continues until about the middle of August. The seeds 

 are produced until about the middle of October. Reproduction is 

 also effected vegetatively by the short creeping underground stems 

 (rhizomes, or rootstocks). 



Elephanthead is a member of the figwort family (Scrophularia- 

 ceae), a plant family with characteristic irregular or two-lipped 

 flowers, which are often brightly colored and either relatively large 

 and showy or borne in showy clusters. Well-known representatives 

 of the family of common occurrence in the West are the paint- 

 brushes and painted-cups (Castilleja spp.) and the pentstemons 

 (Pentstetnon spp.). The fernleaf genus (Pedicularis) , to which 

 elephanthead belongs, is distinguished by the distinctly two-lipped, 

 spurless corolla with the margins of its upper lip not recurved ; four 

 stamens, in two pairs of unequal length, with their anther sacs all 

 alike; the outer flower parts (calyx) cleft on the lower side; and 

 the ovoid or oblong, oblique, many-seeded fruits (capsules). 



