E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Dwarf shrubs, 1-4 cm tall, forming rhizomatous mats; branches erect, flexible at base; twigs yellow- to red-brown, smooth or sparsely hairy.

Leaves:
Alternate, simple, elliptic to broadly elliptic, 6-22 mm long, 4-15 mm wide, lower surface glaucous, smooth, upper surface shiny, smooth, margins entire, bases pointed to rounded, tips pointed, rounded, or notched; leaf stalks without glandular dots at top; stipules absent.

Flowers:
Unisexual, lacking sepals and petals, borne in catkins which flower as leaves emerge, the catkins stout, on leafy twigs; floral bracts pale, smooth; stamens 2; ovaries 1, hairy; styles 0.2-0.4 mm long.

Fruits:
Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 0-0.8 mm long.

Notes:
This species was previously treated as a subspecies of S. reticulata, but because the area of overlap between the two is small and evidence of intergradation between them is tenuous, it is now treated a separate species. The catkins are borne on flowering twigs that are as long as normal vegetative twigs.