General: Evergreen shrub 0.5-2 m tall; stems numerous, prostrate to erect, green, minutely hairy to smooth.
Leaves: Alternate, the blades egg-shaped to elliptic, 5-10 cm long, smooth, shiny above, often tinged with brown and sticky above, greyish-hairy to smooth below, finely toothed; stalks 1-2 cm long; stipules 1 mm long, deciduous.
Fruits: Capsules, 4-5 mm long, 3-lobed, separating into 3, dehiscent, rounded carpels, the carpels slightly crested above; seeds 1 per carpel.
Notes: Two varieties occur in BC.
1. Leaves smooth on lower surface, at least on the veins; plants occurring W of the Coast-Cascade Mountains....................var. hookeri M. C. Johnson
1. Leaves finely short -hairy on lower surface; plants occurring E of the Coast-Cascade Mountains......................var. velutinus
Mesic to dry rocky slopes, shrublands, open forests and burns in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common on S BBC except rare on Vancouver Island; E to SW AB and S to SD, CO 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)
A shade-intolerant, submontane to subalpine, Cordilleran North American evergreen shrub. Occurs in continental cool temperate and cool semiarid climates on moderately dry to fresh, nitrogenmedium soils, sites. Scattered to abundant in early-seral communities on disturbed, water-shedding sites; its occurrence increases with increasing continentality (occasional in the coastal-interior ecotone). When forming a shrub layer, it hinders natural regeneration and growth of shadeintolerant conifers. Symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria enhances the supply of available soil nitrogen. Characteristic of continental forests.
