Authors: Walter  

Botanical Description

Tufted to almost cushion-forming when old, with many 10-20cm long flowering stems radiating outwards to create loose domes. Leaves at the base oblong spathulate to oblanceolate, to 5cm or more long, those above shorter and narrower and densely pubescent. Flowers to 2.5cm across, with a glandular calyx and entire or slightly notched petals in shades of pink or white, in small, fairly dense corymbose cymes, late spring to mid summer. S.c. var. pensylvanica has broader glabrous leaves, and var. ivherryi has slightly larger flowers with glandless calyces. South-eastern U.S.A. from Pennsylvania to Georgia, west to Oklahoma, in open dry woods and clearings, in rocky, gravelly or sandy soils. In its best shades, an attractive but strangely neglected species.