General: Perennial herb from short, horizontal rhizomes; flowering stem 1, 10-25 cm tall, glandular-hairy, usually with red glands.
Leaves: Basal leaves egg-shaped to diamond-shaped, 3-8 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, coarsely and irregularly toothed with 15 to 30 teeth, wedge-shaped at base, fringed, sparsely long-hairy, only young leaves reddish woolly-hairy below; stalks slender to slightly winged; stem leaves lacking.
Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, open to compact, of several clusters of flowers; petals white to pink, 1.5-3.5 mm long, egg-shaped to oblong, narrowed to a distinct or indistinct claw, deciduous; calyces joined to the lower portion of the ovary, free hypanthium present or absent, the lobes green to purplish, egg-shaped to oblong lanceolate, 1-2.5 mm long, spreading or bent back; stamens 10.
Fruits: Follicles, 3-6 mm long, greenish to reddish-purple; seeds brownish, about 0.7 mm long, wrinkled lengthwise.
Moist to dry meadows and gravelly slopes from the montane to alpine zones; common throughout most of BC to 59degreeN, absent from NE BC and the coastal islands; E to AB and S to SD, NM, ID, 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)
