Family: Saxifragaceae,
Saxifrage
Genus: Saxifraga
Description
General: perennial with well-developed horizontal root-
stocks and usually a single leafless flowering stem 20-60
cm tall, mostly hairless below except for the somewhat
ciliate leaves but glandular-short-hairy above and among
the flowers, the hairs tipped with reddish glands.
 Leaves: basal only, the leaf stalks usually several times
as long as the blades, widened at the bases. The blades
kidney-shaped, 2-8 cm broad, usually about 3/4 as long,
coarsely blunt- to sharp-toothed, the teeth mostly 15-29,
up to 7 mm long.
 Flowers: several in an open, spreading cluster as much
as 30 cm long. Petals 5, soon dropped, white with 2 yellow
dots near the base, 3-4 mm long, the blade narrowed
abruptly at base, often bent back. Calyx lobes oblong to
ovate, 1.5-2 mm long, sparsely glandular-hairy on edges or
hairless, often pinkish or purplish. Stamens about equal to
the petals, the filaments flattened and broadened, petal-
like. Ovary red, with 2 cells narrowed to slender styles up
to 1 mm long, stigmas round.
Flowering time: early July-September.
 Fruits: capsule 6-10 mm long, usually purplish. Seeds
brown, nearly 1 mm long, slenderly ellipsoid, longitudinally
ridged with several rows of rufflelike protuberances.
Distribution
Lower montane to alpine, along streams, lakes, and wet
meadows, in w. and c. parts of MT. Also from s. AK and
B.C. and Alberta to CA, NM and AZ. |
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