PLANT: Annuals or perennials. LEAVES: mostly alternate, simple to lobed. INFLORESCENCE: terminal and axillary, compact, subcapitate or rarely solitary, bracteate. FLOWERS: perfect, actinomorphic, subsessile; calyx herbaceous, becoming membranous, not ruptured in fruit, the membranes distended or carinate in fruit, the ribs and lobes with prominent veins in fruit, acute to acuminate; corolla funnelform to salverform, blue, red, yellow or white; stamens equally or unequally inserted in the corolla tube; filaments mostly unequal in length; anthers included to exserted; style included to exserted. CAPSULE: ovoid to ellipsoid, explosively dehiscent; seeds (in AZ) 1 per locule, gelatinous when wet. 2n = 16. –-15 spp., w N. Amer., NOTES: 1-2 sp. in S. Amer. (from the Greek kolla, meaning glue, referring to the seeds when wetted). Wherry, E. 1944. Amer. Midl. Nat. 31: 216-231. REFERENCES: Dieter H. Wilken and J. Mark Porter, 2005, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Polemoniaceae. CANOTIA 1: 1-37.