Silene scouleri ssp. scouleri

General:
Perennial herb from a simple or branched stem-base; stems erect, 1 to several, simple, densely hairy throughout and glandular above, 15-80 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves slender-stalked, the blades oblanceolate, hairy, 6-20 cm long and up to 3 cm wide; stem leaves opposite, hairy, 1-12 pairs, reduced gradually and becoming unstalked above; stipules lacking.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of numerous flowers, the inflorescence elongate, narrow, the lateral clusters mostly congested; petals 5, greenish-white to purplish, stalklike at the bases, the stalks of the petals 7-16 mm long, the blades 4-8 mm long, from 2-cleft to nearly equally 4-lobed, with prominent lateral teeth on each blade lobe; sepals 5, united, forming a tube 10-18 mm long, not inflating in fruit, 10-nerved.

Fruits:
Capsules elliptic to egg-shaped, hairy; seeds 0.9-1.5 mm long, greyish-brown, conspicuously pimply.

Notes:
Two subspecies occur in BC:

1. Leaves less than l5 mm wide, those of the stem usually 4-6 pairs; plants of SC BC.................... ssp. scouleri

1. Leaves, or at least some of them, more than 15 mm wide, those of the stem usually 3-11 pairs; plants of SW BC.................... ssp. grandis (Eastw.) C.L. Hitchc. & Maguire

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia