Montana Field Guide

Stems sprawling, 30–70 cm with 2 to 3 stout, curved nodal spines. Twigs glabrous to puberulent and sparsely bristly, tan becoming gray. Leaf blades 1–2 cm wide, cordate, 3- to 5-lobed, crenate, glandular-pubescent. Inflorescence of 1 to 2 flowers, shorter than the leaves. Flowers campanulate, green to white, 5–8 mm long, nearly glabrous; calyx lobes oblong, 2–3 mm long; petals 1–2 mm long, white; stamens ca. as long as the petals; styles hairy, united ca. half the length. Berry reddish, 4–7 mm long, glabrous. Treated as a distinct species in Lesica (2012) (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Stony soil of open forest, talus slopes; 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).