General: Perennial herb from a short, slender, fleshy rhizome, less than 3 cm long and 1-3 (4) mm thick; stems erect, 20-30 cm tall, glabrous.
Leaves: Basal leaves long-stalked, blades simple, orbicular to heart-shaped, shallowly round-toothed to lobed, sometimes deeply 3- or 5-lobed or compound with 3-5 (7) leaflets; stem leaves 1-3, grouped mostly above middle of stem, lobed, or compound with 3 or 5 lanceolate to egg-shaped-lanceolate, entire leaflets, 1-4 cm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a few-flowered racemes, without bracts; flowers stalks erect to ascending, 10-20 mm long; petals pink to reddish or purplish, 7-12 mm long; sepals 3-5 mm long.
Fruits: Siliques, erect, 1.5-5 cm long, about 1.5 mm wide; styles slender, 3-6 mm long.
Moist woods and bottom lands in the lowland zone; common in SW BC, known from S Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and adjacent mainland of BC; S to N 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)
A shade-tolerant, submontane to montane, Pacific North American forb; ecologically comparable to C. breweri. Occurs in maritime to hypermaritime cool mesothermal climates on very moist to wet, nitrogen-rich soils; its occurrence decreases with increasing elevation and continentality. Sporadic in closed-canopy forests on water-receiving sites; occasional in depressions on water-collecting sites with groundwater table at the ground surface. A nitrophytic species characteristic of Moder or Mull humus forms.
