General: Dwarf perennial herb from a rhizome and branched woody stem-base; stems spreading to prostrate, tufted or mat-forming, 2-15 cm long, branching, stiff-appressed-hairy.
Leaves: Basal and alternate along the horizontal stems, long-stalked, palmately compound; leaflets 3, wedge-shaped, 1-3 cm long, squared-off and 3- to 5-toothed at the tip, often purplish beneath, stiff-appressed-hairy on both surfaces.
Flowers: Inflorescence a small, stalked, leafy-bracted, axillary or terminal cluster of 1 to 15 small flowers, the flowering shoots often shorter than the leaves; corollas pale yellow, saucer-shaped, the petals 5, oval to spoon-shaped, 1-3 mm long; calyces 5-lobed, the lobes triangular, 2-5 mm long, stiff-hairy, alternating with 5 shorter linear bractlets; ovaries superior; stamens 5.
Fruits: Achenes, egg- to pear-shaped, about 1.5 mm long, smooth, brown, on minute flattened stalks.
If more than one illustration is
available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two
subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below.
Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
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)
Dry to moist, gravelly meadows and rocky outcrops and ridges, snowbed areas, forest openings and disturbed soils in the montane to alpine zones; common throughout BC; circumboreal, N to AK, YT and NT, E to PQ and S to NH, CO and CA; Eurasia.