Plants mat- or cushion-forming (with trailing, ± woody stems), not stoloniferous, rhizomatous. Leaves cauline (marcescent, crowded), opposite (rarely alternate); petiole absent; blade oblong to ± broadly obovate, unlobed, 2-5 mm, leathery, margins entire, bristly-ciliate, with 1(-3) lime-secreting hydathodes (in pit, secretion obvious), apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences solitary flowers, ebracteate, 1-5 cm, glabrate or sparsely purple-tipped stipitate-glandular. Flowers: sepals erect, ovate, margins stiffly ciliate or not, surfaces hairy, stipitate-glandular, or glabrous; petals purple to pink, rarely white, often drying violet, not spotted, obovate to elliptic, (2-)5-12(-20) mm, longer than sepals; ovary ± superior. Capsules ± folliclelike.

Densely matted from a branching caudex, the flowering stems 2-10 cm; lower lvs closely imbricate, opposite, obovate to spatulate, 3-6 mm, ciliate; cauline lvs similar, few; fl solitary, erect, usually purple, 1 cm wide; 2n=26, 52. Circumboreal, s. in rocky places to e. Que., n. Vt., n. N.Y., and Wyo. June, July.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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