General: Perennial herb from a taproot and branching stem-base; forming mats up to 40 cm across; stems prostrate to ascending or erect, short-hairy to hairy and more or less glandular above, 3-10 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves oblong to linear, numerous, 1-nerved, 3-8 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, glabrous or glandular-hairy or hairy margined; stem leaves opposite, 1-2 pairs or occasionally lacking, similar to basal leaves but usually wider, glabrous or glandular-hairy or hairy margined; stipules lacking.
Flowers: Inflorescence usually of solitary flowers; flower stalks glandular-hairy, erect; petals 5, white, egg-shaped to spoon-shaped, 4-10 mm long; sepals 5, often purplish, especially at the tip, 4-5 mm long, mostly 3-nerved, oblong, rounded to obtuse, usually glandular-hairy.
Fruits: Capsules egg-shaped-cylindric, 4-8 mm long, 3- to 4-valved; seeds 0.8-1 mm long, smooth or nearly so.
Dry gravelly slopes, meadows and fellfields in the subalpine and alpine zones; common in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; N to AK, YT and NT, E to W AB and S to ID, NM and NE 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)
