General: Perennial herb from a yellow to pale brown rhizome; stems erect, 8-12 cm tall in flower, to 35 cm tall in fruit, smooth.
Leaves: Evergreen, all basal, stalked, 4-17 cm long, 2- or 3-times pinnately compound, occasionally twice 3-parted, the 5 or more leaflets short- to long-stalked, 2-6 cm long, egg-shaped, deeply lobed or incised, toothed.
Flowers: Inflorescence a 2- or 3-flowered cyme, the flowers nodding; bracts minute; flower stalks 1-4 cm long; petals 5-7, shorter than sepals, clawed, linear-lanceolate, bent back, flattened, nectary on inside surface near base; sepals 5-7, pale greenish-white, bent back and ascending, linear-lanceolate, 6-15 mm long, 0.3-1 mm wide; stamens 9-15.
Fruits: Follicles, 6 to 10, oblong, 7-10 mm long, spreading on stalks equal to or longer than fruit; beaks curved back, less than 1 mm long; seeds dark, ellipsoid, shiny, about 2 mm long.
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/intolerant, submontane to subalpine, Pacific North American forb. Occurs in hypermaritime to maritime subalpine boreal and cool mesothermal climates on fresh to very moist, nitrogenpoor soils; its occurrence decreases with increasing continentality. Scattered in open-canopy coniferous forests on gleysolic or organic soils on waterreceiving sites. Oxylophytic species characteristic of Mor humus forms.
