General: Perennial herb from a taproot and simple or branched crown; stems erect, solitary or several, simple or branched, strongly hairy, the hairs downswept, becoming glandular above, often with purple cross walls above, 20-50 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves in a rosette, the blades lanceolate or elliptic to oblanceolate, hairy, 2-10 cm long, 3-15 mm wide, narrowed to slender stalks; stem leaves opposite, usually linear, hairy, remote, 2-4 pairs, much reduced; stipules lacking.
Flowers: Inflorescence of perfect, solitary to several flowers inconspicuously bracted in a loose narrow cluster; petals 5, white or pinkish, often included in the calyces, or the blades exserted, stalklike at the bases, the stalks narrow and gradually flared above and usually broader than the blades, the blades 1-3 mm long, oblong, notched to shallowly 2- or sometimes 4-lobed, with 2 appendages; sepals 5, united, forming a tube 10-15 mm long, glandular, enlarged (but not inflated) in fruit, 10-nerved.
Fruits: Capsules narrowly oblong, 4- or (usually) 5-valved; seeds dark brown, about 0.4-0.7 mm long, prominently wrinkled and pimply concentrically.
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 shrublands, meadows and forest openings in the steppe to alpine zones; rare at scattered locations throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; E to S MB and S to NE, CO, AZ and NV.
