General: Perennial herb from spreading, horizontal or ascending rhizomes; stems erect, 10-40 cm tall, glandular-hairy above.
Leaves: Basal leaves leathery, narrowly egg-shaped to elliptic, 3-15 cm long, round-toothed, narrowed at base to a short, broad stalk less than 1/2 length of blade, deep green and shining above, pale green or brownish below, smooth; stem leaves 1 to 3, widely separated, smaller, unstalked, mostly oblong-oblanceolate; stipules membranous, fused to the leaf stalks.
Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, of several, many-flowered clusters, compact at first, expanding in fruit; petals white or pinkish, 5, clawed, blades spoon-shaped, up to twice length of sepals; calyces deeply saucer-shaped, 2-3 mm wide, joined to ovary only at the base, the free hypanthium lacking; calyx lobes 5, erect, about 1 mm long; stamens 10.
Fruits: Follicles, 2, 5-7 mm long, reddish or purplish; seeds light brown, 2-3.5 mm, tailed at both ends.
Moist to wet streambanks and meadows in the montane to alpine zones; frequent throughout BC, except absent in the NE; N to AK, YT and NT, E to AB and S to MT, ID and OR.
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)
A shade-intolerant, subalpine, Western North American forb distributed equally in the Pacific and Cordilleran regions. Occurs in alpine tundra and subalpine boreal climates on very moist to wet, nitrogen-medium soils. Common in non-forested, semi-terrestrial (streamÂedge, spring, and intermittent stream), and meadow-like communities on water-receiving (flooded) sites. Usually associated with Caltha leptosepala, Petasites frigidus, and Philonotis fontana. Characteristic of alpine and subalpine communities.
