General: Perennial herb from a thick stem-base; stems ascending to erect, branched, spreading short-hairy below, long hairy and often glandular-hairy above, 25-90 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves palmately divided 3/4 their length into 5 to 7, sharply toothed segments, stiff-hairy and more or less glandular; stem leaves similar, opposite, more or less rounded in outline, 4-12 cm wide.
Flowers: Inflorescence of several to many flowers in an open terminal cluster; petals pinkish-purple to lavender (rarely white), soft-hairy on the lower 1/4 (or sometimes more) of the inner surface, rounded or slightly notched at the tips, 14-20 mm long; sepals 8-12 mm long, bristle-tipped, the tip 1-3 mm long; stamens 10, fertile, not fused.
Fruits: Capsules, elongated, glandular-hairy; styles 2.5-5 cm long, the beaks 10-14 mm long; seeds oblong, pitted.
Notes: A few of our plants (in SE BC), without glandular lower stems and stalks, may belong to the more southern var. nervosum (Rydb.) C.L. Hitchc.
Mesic to dry grassland, meadows and open forests in the steppe and montane zones; frequent in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, rare northward and on Vancouver Island; E to SK and S to SD, CO, UT and CA.
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)
