General: Perennial herb from a creeping rhizome; stems prostrate to ascending or climbing, several, branched, square, short-hairy on the angles, the hooked hairs pointed downwards, 20-80 cm long.
Leaves: Basal leaves few, soon deciduous; stem leaves in whorls of 6, sometimes 4 or 5 on the smaller branches, narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, 1-veined, 1.5-4.5 cm long, unstalked, short-hairy on the margins and with hooked bristles on the veins beneath, the hairs pointed forward.
Flowers: Inflorescence of usually 3, stalked flowers in loose, open axillary or terminal clusters; corollas saucer-shaped, whitish, 2-3 mm wide, 4-lobed; calyces obsolete.
Fruits: Nutlets, 2, 2-2.5 mm long, with numerous, short, hooked white to brown bristles.
Moist to mesic streambanks, thickets and forests in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common throughout BC; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and SW NT, E to NF and S to FL, CA and MX; Eurasia.
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, submontane to subalpine, circumpolar forb (transcontinental in North America). Occurs on fresh to very moist, nitrogen-rich soils within boreal, temperate, and cool mesothermal climates; its occurrence decreases with increasing elevation. Common on water-receiving (alluvial, floodplain, seepage, and stream-edge) sites: also present in early-seral communities. Scattered in coniferous forests, plentiful in broad-leaved forests. Typically associated with Athyrium filix-femina, Polystichum munitum, Rubus parviflorus, and Tiarella trifoliata. A nitrophytic species characteristic of Moder and Mull humus forms.
