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Micranthes lyallii

Lyall's saxifrage, red-stemmed saxifrage

Olympic saxifrage

Habit Perennial with well-developed rhizomes, often forming small mats. Scapose, herbaceous perennials, often solitary, from a crown with bulbils.
Leaves

Leaves all basal, the leaves wedge-shaped to fan-shaped, 10-25 mm. long and nearly as broad, coarsely dentate with 7-9 teeth, with slender petioles of similar length, glabrous or with a few soft, brown hairs.

Leaves all basal, petiolate, the petiole flattened, 0.4-2 cm. long;

blades ovate to elliptic, fleshy, 0.5-2 cm. long, the base tapered, the margins serrate and hairy, the upper surface glabrous, the lower reddish-brown woolly.

Flowers

Inflorescence, calyx and fruits often bright red; inflorescence a cyme with up to 15 flowers, the peduncles slender, often with linear, entire bracts;

calyx lobed almost to the base, the 5 lobes oblong-lanceolate, 2-3 mm. long, sharply reflexed;

petals 5, white, aging to pink, 2.5-4 mm. long, the blade oblong-oval, rounded to a short, broad claw;

stamens 10, equaling the petals, the filaments white, club-shaped;

carpels often 3-5, fused only 0.5-1 mm., the ovary mostly superior, the carpels tapered to styles less than 1 mm. long.

Inflorescence a flat-topped, 5- to 15-flowered, open cyme 2-7 cm. long, with purple-tipped, stalked glands;

sepals 5, spreading to reflexed, ovate;

petals 5, greenish, often purple-margined, not spotted or clawed, lanceolate to obovate, 1.5-2 mm. long, barley longer than the sepals;

stamens 10, the filaments linear and flattened;

pistils 2, distinct almost to base.

Fruits

Follicle 7-12 mm. long exclusive of the slender, divergent, stylar beaks.

Capsules purplish.

Micranthes lyallii

Micranthes tischii

Flowering time July-September May-July
Habitat Wet, gravelly meadows and along streams and ponds at high elevations. Forested ledges and rock crevices where moist.
Distribution
Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in northern Washington; Alaska to Washington, east to Alberta, Idaho, and Montana.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Endemic to Washington, where known from the Olympic Mountains and Washington Pass in Okanogan County.
[BONAP county map]
Origin Native Native
Conservation status Not of concern Sensitive in Washington (WANHP)
Sibling taxa
M. apetala, M. ferruginea, M. fragosa, M. gormanii, M. idahoensis, M. integrifolia, M. nelsoniana, M. nidifica, M. occidentalis, M. odontoloma, M. oregana, M. rufidula, M. tischii, M. tolmiei
M. apetala, M. ferruginea, M. fragosa, M. gormanii, M. idahoensis, M. integrifolia, M. lyallii, M. nelsoniana, M. nidifica, M. occidentalis, M. odontoloma, M. oregana, M. rufidula, M. tolmiei
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