Authors: Torr.  

Botanical Description

ex A. Gray. Mat-forming, to 40cm or more wide and with erect flowering shoots 20-30cm high. Leaves elliptic to ovate, 2-3cm long, lustrous. Flowers 2-2.5cm across, pink, lilac or purple, with a paler eye and a darker basal stripe to each petal lobe, in clusters of six to twelve, late spring to summer. There is a good white form in cultivation. Oregon, in coniferous and deciduous woods on slopes up to 2000m. Best in neutral to acid soils rich in humus and shaded from hottest sun. Several natural variants have received cultivar names, e.g. 'Amazing Grace', 'Red Buttes', 'Wagon Wheel'; the latter is most distinct, as its salmon-pink petals are abnormally long and narrow.

a, P. adsurgens; b, P. carolina; c, P. divaricata; d, P. stolonifera; e, P. subulata;