General: Perennial herb from a small taproot and a branched crown; forming small cushions 4-20 cm across; stems slender, ascending, several, simple to few branched, glandular-hairy, 1-15 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves linear-lanceolate, 3-12 mm long, less than 1 mm wide, densely glandular, densely crowded, prominently 3-nerved, bluish-green; stem leaves opposite, 2-6 pairs, 0.3-1.5 cm long, reduced upwards, densely glandular, bluish-green, without clustered secondary leaves in their axils; stipules lacking.
Flowers: Inflorescence of 2-4 flowers in an open cluster, occasionally flowers solitary; petals 5, white or sometimes reddish, oblanceolate, 2.5-5 mm long; sepals 5, often purplish, broadly lanceolate, long-pointed or abruptly sharp-pointed, 2-4 mm long, strongly 3-nerved, glandular.
Fruits: Capsules narrowly egg-shaped, 3-5 mm long, 3- to 4-valved; seeds kidney-shaped, 0.4-0.6 mm long, light reddish-brown, minutely roughened.
Dry gravelly slopes, meadows and fellfields in the subalpine and alpine zones; common throughout BC, except rare on the Queen Charlotte Islands; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to NM, NV and CA; 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)
