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.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
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)
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.
