Spalding's catchfly or campion

Plants perennial, viscid; taproot stout; caudex branched, woody, producing several to many shoots. Stems erect, branched, leafy, 20-60 cm, villose-tomentose, viscid-glandular. Leaves 2 per node, connate proximally, sessile, largest in mid stem; blade lanceolate, 3-7 cm × 5-15 mm, apex acute, glandular-tomentose throughout. Inflorescences open, leafy cymes, bracteate, viscid and glandular-tomentose, branches ascending, mostly floriferous, flowers terminal and at distal nodes; bracts leaflike, 5-30 mm. Pedicels shorter than calyx. Flowers: calyx obscurely 10-veined, tubular-campanulate, 10-15 × 4-5 mm in flower, becoming clavate and 15-20 × 6-8 mm in fruit, narrowed toward base around carpophore, herbaceous, viscid-pubescent, veins more distinct at base, without conspicuous pale commissures, lobes narrowly lanceolate, 3-6 mm, margins very narrow, membranous, apex blunt; corolla greenish white, clawed, claw equaling calyx, widened distally, limb emarginate, 2 × 4 mm, appendages 4(-6), ca. 0.5 mm; stamens equaling petals; styles 3, equaling petals. Capsules ellipsoid, slightly longer than calyx, opening by 6 teeth; carpophore 1.5-2.5 mm. Seeds yellowish brown, winged, reniform, ca. 2 mm, rugose; wing broad, wrinkled. 2n = 48.

Flowering summer. Mixed prairie and ponderosa pine forests in swales and on dry hillsides; of conservation concern; 800-1100 m; B.C.; Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash.