E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial herb from a stout rhizome, smooth; stems erect to ascending, 25-80 cm tall, sometimes branched above.

Leaves:
Basal leaves several, 15-40 cm long, pinnately compound, with stipules fused to base of long leaf-stalks and forming membranous margins; leaflets 9 to 15, egg-shaped to oblong, 2-5 cm long, coarsely saw-toothed; stem leaves alternate, 1 or 2, reduced, with free leaflet-like stipules.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a dense, cylindric, long-stalked spike of numerous small flowers, the spike 1.5-7 cm long; corollas absent; calyces reddish-purple to pink, 4-lobed, the lobes oval, 2-3 mm long; ovaries superior; stamens 4, the filaments flattened, club-shaped, about twice as long as the calyx-lobes.

Fruits:
Achenes, enclosed in the 4-angled, distinctly winged, smooth hypanthium.

Notes:
Possibly a hybrid between S. canadensis and S. officinalis.