General: Perennial herb from slender rhizomes, with small bulblets; stems erect, 5-25 cm tall, lightly to heavily glandular-hairy throughout, the hairs usually purple-tipped.
Leaves: Basal leaves round to kidney-shaped, 1-2 cm wide, palmately cleft to the base into (3) 5 segments, these again 3-lobed, smooth or sparsely hairy, often with bulblets in axils; stalks slender, 1-2.5 cm long, with widened stipular bases; stem leaves usually 2, similar to basal or with narrower segments.
Flowers: Inflorescence a 2- to 5-flowered cluster; petals pinkish or purplish-tinged, 5, clawed, the blades wedge egg-shaped, to 8 mm long, usually 5-cleft, the segments often again deeply divided; calyces bell-shaped, 3-4 mm long (up to 6 mm long in fruit), joined to ovary to about 1 mm, the free hypanthium spreading slightly; calyx lobes 5, triangular, 0.5-1 mm long, tips blunt to rounded; stamens 10.
Fruits: Capsules; seeds brownish, about 0.5 mm long, with tiny spines.
Mesic to dry coastal bluffs, meadows, open coniferous and deciduous forests, grasslands and shrublands in the lowland and steppe to subalpine zones; frequent in S BC; E to SK and S to SD, CO, UT, NV and CA.
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)
