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

General:
Perennial herb from a long, slender, branched rhizome; stems decumbent to ascending, several, branched, hairy and usually glandular above, 5-70 cm tall/long.

Leaves:
Basal leaves usually deciduous by flowering time; stem leaves opposite, lanceolate to narrowly egg-shaped, usually long-pointed, 2-10 cm long, 3-30 mm wide, glandular-hairy, unstalked or nearly so; stipules lacking.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of several flowers in a leafy, open cluster or, less commonly, solitary; petals 5, white, stalklike at the bases, the blades 2-3 mm long, lobed halfway or more, the stalks about 5 mm long; sepals 5, purplish or greenish, united, forming a glandular-hairy tube 5-8 mm long, 10-nerved; styles 3 or sometimes 4.

Fruits:
Capsules oblong, 5-8 mm long, 1-celled; seeds 0.7-0.9 mm long, black, shiny, smooth or lightly net-veined.

Notes:
Two varieties occur in BC:

1. Stems densely hairy, without glandular hairs...................... var. menziesii

1. Stems densely long soft-hairy with spreading glandular hairs.......................... var. viscosa (Greene) C.L. Hitchc. & Maguire