General: Perennial herb from scaly succulent shoots from a rhizome; stems 20-60 cm tall, with lines of short, stiff hairs below, mixed with glandular hairs above; winter bulblets small, underground.
Leaves: Opposite, at least below, egg-shaped to elliptic below, narrower above, 0.5-4.7 cm long, 3-14 mm wide, blunt to somewhat pointed, entire to finely toothed, mostly glabrous, fringed with short, stiff hairs; unstalked or stalks to 1.5 mm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence more or less nodding when in bud; hypanthium 0.5-1.7 mm long; petals 1.6-5.5 mm long, white or pink, notched at tip; sepals 1.2-2.8 mm long, green, glabrous or sparsely glandular-hairy, anthers 0.3-0.9 mm long; ovaries 1.0-1.4 cm long, densely glandular-hairy and short stiff-hairy, rarely glabrous; styles 0.8-5 mm long; stigmas club-shaped.
Fruits: Capsules, 2.4-6 cm long, glabrous to hairy; stalks 10-40 mm long; seeds narrowly egg-shaped, 1.1-1.6 mm long, pimply, tuft of hairs white, 3-6 mm long, readily detaching.
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)