General: taprooted perennial, tufted, often cushioned, not over about 5 cm tall, the numerous stems, when not hidden by the leaves, spreading-hairy and becoming glandular upward toward and among the flowers.
Leaves: opposite, broadly lanceolate, widest around the middle, mostly 2-7 mm long and 1-2.5 mm wide, sharply point-tipped, the surfaces hairless or short-hairy, the thickened, firm but elastic, prominently whitish edges hairy toward the base.
Flowers: solitary at the ends of the stems, stalkless or short-stalked. The 5 calyx lobes firm, pointed, glandular-hairy, but the midrib not much thickened, the membranes between the ridges on the calyx flat. Corolla pink or purplish to white, the tube 9-12 mm long, often twice as long as the calyx, the 5 broad, rounded, spreading lobes 6-9 mm long. Style 5-8 mm long.
May-July.
Fruits: capsules, elliptic, splitting along 3 lines, containing few seeds.
Distribution
Open, rocky places at moderate to high elevations in the mountains, in w. and s. parts of MT. Also in Lost River Mts. in Custer Co., ID.
Sub taxa:
Our specimen belong to ssp. albomarginata M.E. Jones.
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No edibility data
No medicinal data
