General: Prostrate, mat-forming, semi-shrub from a rhizome and branching stolons; flowering stems erect to ascending, 5-20 cm tall, smooth or sparsely soft-hairy in grooves along the stem.
Leaves: Evergreen, smooth, dead leaves withering and persistent for many years; basal leaves numerous, crowded in thick tufts, 7-20 mm long, the narrowly wing-margined stalk about as long as the fan-shaped blade, which is two- to three-times 3-dissected, the ultimate segments linear-lanceolate, sharp-pointed, ribbed below, grooved above; stem leaves alternate, similar but smaller.
Flowers: Inflorescences dense, narrow, bracted, erect, terminal clusters, 1-7 cm long, of several to many short-stalked flowers; corollas white, saucer-shaped, the petals 5, egg- to spoon-shaped, 3-4 mm long; calyces 5-lobed, the lobes triangular, about 2 mm long; ovaries superior; stamens about 20.
Fruits: Follicles, 4-5 mm long, short-stalked, somewhat leathery, smooth or sparsely silky-hairy along the ventral suture; seeds 4, spindle-shaped.
Mesic to wet forest openings, meadows, heathlands, scree slopes, mossy seepage areas and snowbed tundra in the subalpine to alpine zones; common throughout BC, except NE; N to AK, YT and NT, E to W AB and S to ID, MT and N 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)
A very shade-intolerant. subalpine to alpine. Western North American forb distributed equally in the Pacific and Cordilleran regions. Occurs in alpine tundra and subalpine boreal climates on fresh to very moist, nitrogenmedium soils. Inhabits organic or mineral substrates receiving seepage from late-melting snowbanks. Abundant in heath communities and parkland-like forests; often grows with Cassiope mertensiana and Phyllodoce empetriformis. Characteristic of alpine and subalpine communities.
