General: Dioecious shrubs, 0.15-4 m tall, not colonial; branches erect or decumbent, flexible at base; twigs yellow- to red-brown, smooth or sparsely to moderately hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, narrowly oblong to elliptic or lance-shaped, 2-6.5 cm long, 0.5-2.3 cm wide, lower surface glaucous, smooth or sparsely silky, hairs white and rust-coloured, upper surface highly glossy, smooth or becoming so, margins entire or toothed, bases and tips pointed; leaf stalks without glandular dots at top; stipules absent, rudimentary, or leaflike.
Fruits: Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 0.3-0.8 mm long.
Notes: The stipules of this species are usually rudimentary but sometimes appear as green or brownish leaflike lobes, 1-4.5 mm long and narrowly oblong or egg-shaped. They are sometimes persistent for 1 year. This species overlaps with and may intergrade with S. pulchra in N BC.
Moist to wet thickets, fens, swamps, forest openings, lake edges and stream banks in the montane and lower subalpine zones; common throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; N to AK, S YT and NT, E to NF and S to NH, ME, WI, MN, SD, NM, AZ 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)
