Cusick’s bluebell is currently known in the Boise Front only from a single small patch near the Pioneer Lodge at Bogus Basin, where it blooms shortly after the snow melts in late April or early May.  Hopefully there are other occurrences in less accessible sites as well, especially since this one is highly vulnerable to elimination by the various maintenance and development activities at this popular recreation site.

The species resembles the somewhat more common sagebrush or leafy bluebell (Mertensia foliosa), but the leaves are finely hairy rather than glabrous.  In earlier floras it was included within a more-encompassing Mertensia viridis.