General: Perennial dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants) herb from a taproot surmounted by simple or branched crown, with coarse roots; stems erect, solitary to several, simple (below the inflorescence), 30-100 cm tall, stout, ribbed, smooth.
Leaves: Basal leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, at least the lower ones arrowhead-shaped with the lobes pointing downward, smooth, the blades 2-10 cm long, the stalks long; stem leaves alternate, similar, becoming short stalked or unstalked (and clasping) above.
Flowers: Inflorescence of numerous, unisexual flowers in large, elongate panicles, 10-20 cm long; flower stalks jointed near middle; perianths reddish, outer segments about 1.5-3 mm long, becoming sharply reflexed, inner segments erect, 3-4 mm long, loosely enclosing the achenes in fruit, with a small, basal, grain-like swelling.
Fruits: Achenes, dark brown, smooth, 2-2.5 mm long.
Moist to mesic meadows, streambanks, thickets and forest openings in the montane to alpine zones (ssp. alpestris), mesic to dry roadsides and waste places in the montane zone (ssp. acetosa); ssp. alpestris - common in N BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, infrequent in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, ssp. acetosa - rare in S BC; ssp. alpestris N to AK, YT and NT, and E to Greenland, ssp. acetosa introduced from 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)
