Montana Field Guide

Delicate perennials, 8-30 cm tall; small basal or subsurface turions present; gemmae sometimes in upper leaf axils; stems glabrous (or strigillose above) but with lines of hairs decurrent from petioles. Petioles 3-5 mm below but leaves becoming sessile above. Leaf blades 0.8-4 cm long, narrowly lanceolate to elliptic, glabrous or sparsely hairy on margins; margins entire below but becoming denticulate above. Inflorescence nodding to nearly erect. Sepals 2.9-4 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, strigillose; petals 4-6.5 mm long, white fading to pink. Ovary densely strigillose; style to nearly 4 mm long; stigma broadly clavate. Capusle 2.5-5.5 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, sparsely strigillose. Seeds 0.8-1.2 mm long, papillose, coma 3.5-6.5 mm long, brownish, persistent (adapted from: Hoch, 1994, in Flora of Alberta, 2nd ed., revised).

Epilobium leptocarpum resembles Epilobium ciliatum but has a dull brownish coma (tuft of hairs on the seed) (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Moist open stony slopes (Hoch, 1994, in Flora of Alberta, 2nd ed., revised).

POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus bifarius, Bombus centralis, Bombus fervidus, Bombus flavifrons, Bombus frigidus, Bombus melanopygus, Bombus mixtus, Bombus rufocinctus, Bombus sylvicola, Bombus ternarius, Bombus sitkensis, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus impatiens, Bombus insularis, Bombus suckleyi, and Bombus kirbiellus (Thorp et al. 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Wilson et al. 2010, Colla et al. 2011, Koch and Strange 2012, Koch et al. 2012, Pyke et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).