Stems erect, 0.5–1 m, spiny at the nodes, bristly between. Twigs puberulent, red-brown, becoming gray. Leaf blades 1–7 cm wide, cordate, 5- to 7-lobed, deeply toothed, nearly glabrous and shiny above, glabrous to sparsely hairy and sometimes glandular on the veins beneath. Inflorescence drooping, 5- to 20-flowered. Flowers saucer-shaped, 3–4 mm long, greenish to reddish, glandular-hairy; calyx lobes ovate, 2–3 mm long; petals pink, 1–2 mm long; stamens shorter than petals; style glabrous, united more than half way. Berry 6–9 mm long, black, bristly-glandular, unpalatable (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
Moist to wet forest, rock slides, avalanche slopes, cliffs, often along streams; montane, subalpine (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
POLLINATORS The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap:
Bombus vagans,
Bombus bifarius,
Bombus centralis,
Bombus fervidus,
Bombus flavifrons,
Bombus huntii,
Bombus melanopygus,
Bombus mixtus,
Bombus nevadensis,
Bombus terricola,
Bombus sitkensis,
Bombus occidentalis,
Bombus pensylvanicus,
Bombus bimaculatus,
Bombus impatiens,
Bombus insularis, and
Bombus flavidus (Plath 1934, Thorp et al. 1983, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).