Distribution: Widely distributed on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; British Columbia to California, east across most of North America to the Atlantic Coast; circumboreal.

Habitat: Moist places, from sea level to high elevations in the mountains.

Flowers: June-September

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Ants, bees, flies, butterflies, beetles, wasps

Perennial herbs from slender, creeping rhizomes, the numerous, branched stems 0.5-6 dm. long, slender, weak and scrambling on other vegetation, the square stems glabrous or scabrous on the angles.

Leaves in whorls of 4, or occasionally 5 or 6, sessile, linear to narrowly elliptic, blunt, 1-nerved, 5-20 mm. long.

Peduncles numerous, 1- to 3-flowered, axillary or terminal, commonly 2-3 together at the ends of short, axillary branches; calyx obsolete; corolla rotate, whitish, 1-1.5 mm. wide, the 3 or 4 lobes much longer than the tube; ovary 2-celled, inferior.

Fruit dry, the 2 segments divergent and nearly distinct at maturity, glabrous, 1-1.75 mm. thick.