General: Annual herb from a slender taproot; stems ascending to erect, simple, several, 1-35 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves few to many, spreading to erect, more or less equal in size, elliptic to round-deltate, the blades 0.5-4 cm long, tapered abruptly to the stalk, the stalks up to 20 cm long; stem leaves paired, opposite, fused on both margins, forming a disk less than 5 cm wide.
Flowers: Inflorescence of whorled racemes with 5-40 flowers on stalks 1-10 cm long or unstalked, with one bract subtending the lowest flower; petals 5, white or pinkish, 2-6 mm long; sepals 2, 1.5-5 mm long.
Fruits: Capsules; seeds 3, round to egg-shaped, black, shiny, smooth (at 20x magnification), the appendages white, fleshy, 1-2.7 mm long.
Moist, sandy vernal sites, meadows, thickets and forests in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; frequent in SW and SE BC, infrequent in SC BC; S to SD, MT, UT, AZ and MX, also known from AK.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
