General:
Biennial or short-lived perennial herb from a branched stem-base; stems erect, several, branched, stiff-hairy below, becoming glandular in the inflorescence, 0.3-1.0 m tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, 2-10 cm long, 2 cm wide, slenderly to broadly stalked; stem leaves opposite, 5-10 pairs, lanceolate, the lower ones often larger than the basal, becoming slightly reduced and unstalked above; stipules lacking.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of unisexual (the plants either male or female) flowers, rather showy, evening blooming and scented, several to many in open, spreading, leafy-bracted clusters; petals 5, white, stalklike at the bases, the blades 7-10 mm long, narrowly egg-shaped, 2-cleft to about midlength, with triangular appendages at the base; sepals 5, united, forming a downy, sticky tube 15-20 mm long.

Fruits:
Capsules egg-shaped-cylindric, to 20 mm long, with 5, 2-toothed valves; seeds about 1.5 mm long, dark bluish-brown, prominently warty-pimply in concentric rows.

Notes:
See S. dioicia for discussion of hybridization.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

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.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia