General:
Annual herb from a slender taproot; stems usually branched from base and spreading to ascending, 10-55 cm tall, peeling below; plant sparsely stiff-hairy to almost glabrous, pale-green.

Leaves:
Opposite near base, alternate above, lanceolate to egg-shaped, 8-35 mm long, finely toothed; unstalked or nearly so.

Flowers:
Inflorescence crowded in leafy spikes; flowers generally fertilized in the bud, not opening; hypanthium 0.3-1 mm long; petals 1-3 mm long, pink, deeply notched; sepals 0.7-2 mm long; stigmas sometimes nearly 4-lobed.

Fruits:
Capsules, cylindric, about 7 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, tough, slightly curved, pointed but not beaked, 4-chambered; unstalked; valves mostly adherant to partitions, the axis breaking-up as seeds shed; seeds 6-14 per chamber, in 2 rows, 1-1.3 mm long, netted, glabrous, brownish, without tuft of hairs.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

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.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Epilobium pygmaeum (Speg.) Hoch & P.H. Raven