Apetalous catchfly

Description

Plants perennial, cespitose or not; taproot stout. Stems erect, branched or simple, 5-40 cm, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves: basal few or numerous, petiolate, blade narrowly oblanceolate, spatulate, 1-13 cm - 1-7 mm, margins ciliate, glabrous or pubescent; cauline in 1-5 pairs, sessile, much reduced distally, blade linear to lanceolate, 0.1-4 cm - 1-5 mm. Pedicels slender or stout. Flowers erect or nodding; calyx prominently 10-veined, ovate-elliptic to broadly campanulate, inflated, 11-18 - 6-13 mm, thin and papery, veins purple or brown, lobes ovate to triangular, 2-3 mm; corolla dingy pink, purple, or red, claw shorter than to equaling calyx, limb not differentiated from claw, ovate or obovate, unlobed to 2-lobed, 1-4 mm; stamens shorter than petals; styles 5, shorter than petals. Capsules equaling to slightly longer than calyx, opening by 10 recurved teeth; carpophore 1-2 mm. Seeds brown or sooty brown, broadly winged, round to - angular, 1.5-2.5 mm diam. including wing.Subspecies 3 (3 in the flora): Greenland, Canada, nw United States including Alaska, e Asia (Russian Far East, Siberia).