The
photo at right shows the shallowly bilobed petals of Douglas' campion as seen on the crest of the Columbia Hills........July 7, 2006.
Note the entire margins of the petals.
Douglas' campion is a tufted perennial with a woody base arising from stout woody rootstocks. The simple stems are decumbent to erect, measuring 20-40 cm long. The herbage of the leaves and stems consists of dense, curly and downward pointing hairs. It is rare that plants are glandular. The leaves are typically at the base of the stems and on the new stems. The lower leaves have long, tapering petioles and are narrowly to broadly oblanceolate or linear-lanceolate, measuring from 2.5-5 cm long and 2-7 mm wide. The 1-8 pairs of stem leaves are linear, reduced in size, and becoming sessile upwards on the stem.
The inflorescence usually consists of 3-flowered cymes (sometimes 1-7 flowers) on long pedicels. The cylindrical calyx is 1-1.5 cm long with short, rounded lobes with broad membranous margins that are often flexed inwards. The calyx is 10-nerved and becomes inflated in fruit. It is often covered with numerous fine, short hairs or may be glabrous. It is rarely glandular. The white, greenish-white to pinkish or purplish petals are exserted from the calyx from 6-9 mm. The blades of the petals are 2-lobed 1/5-1/3 their length but entire the rest of their length (occasionally with a small lateral tooth on each margin below the sinus).
Douglas' campion may be found amongst sagebrush in the plains to dry woods in the foothills and on alpine slopes in the mountains.
Douglas' campion may be found from southern British Columbia south through the Cascade Mts. to the Sierra Nevada of central California. It is found eastward through Washington and Oregon to western Montana, northern Nevada and Utah. It is also found in the Olympic Mts. of Washington.
In the Columbia River Gorge, it may be found between the elevations of 100'-4800' from Silver Star Mt. east to near the White Salmon River.
- 
- 