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

Habitat: Roadsides, fields, meadows, pastures, irrigation ditches, forest edge, thickets, wastelots, and other disturbed open areas, often where moist.

Flowers: May-August

Origin: Introduced from Europe

Growth Duration: Biennial, Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Self-pollination, moths, hummingbirds

Stout, dioecious perennial from a branched crown, the several simple stems 5-11 dm. tall, stiff-hairy below and glandular in the inflorescence.

Basal leaves petiolate, lanceolate to oblanceolate, up to 10 cm. long and 2 cm. broad; cauline leaves 5-9 pairs, slightly reduced upward and becoming sessile.

Flowers several in an open, spreading, leafy-bracteate inflorescence; calyx 15-20 mm. long and tubular, the 5 lobes narrow; the calyx of the pistillate flowers inflated, 20-nerved; corolla white; claw of the petals equaling the calyx, broadened and auriculate at the junction with the blade; the blade 7-10 mm. long, narrowly obovate, deeply lobed, with 2 small, triangular appendages; styles 5; stamens 10, fused at the base, forming a tube.

Capsule 1-celled, ovoid, opening by 5 bifid, spreading valves.