Stems trailing, procumbent, or ascending, 5–25 cm, much branched.
Leaves spatulate to ovate-lanceolate, 0.6–2.5 cm.
Inflorescences cymes spreading, lax.
Flowers calyces not cleft, 7–12 mm, usually purple, glandular-pubescent; petals red or pink to white, limbs 8–15 mm.
Fruits 6–8 mm.
Seeds 1.6–2 mm.
2n=28.
Roadsides. Flowering May–Jul. 1300–1400 m. BW, ECas. CA; widely scattered in North America; Europe. Exotic.
Sometimes cultivated, Saponaria ocymoides has been collected twice in Oregon, first in 1956.
as described under Saponaria ocymoides
Plants perennial, with over-wintering leafy shoots. Stems trailing, procumbent, or as-cending, much-branched, 5-25 cm. Leaves: petiole not winged, (0.1-)0.5-1(-3) cm; blade 1-veined, spatulate to ovate-lanceo-late, 0.6-2.5 × 0.3-1.4 cm. Cymes spreading, lax. Pedicels 2-6 mm. Flowers sometimes double; calyx usually purple, not cleft, 7-12 mm, glandular-pubescent; petals red or pink to white, blade 8-15 mm. Capsules 6-8 mm. Seeds 1.6-2 mm wide. 2n = 28 (Europe).Flowering summer. Waste sites, rocky places, old gardens; 0-2200 m; introduced; Calif., Colo., Ind., Mass., Mich., N.Y., Oreg.; Europe.Saponaria ocymoides is a long-cultivated rock-garden and wall plant that is only rarely persistent outside of gardens.