Saxifraga bronchialis |
Saxifraga mertensiana |
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spotted saxifrage, yellowdot saxifrage |
Merten's or wood or woodland saxifrage, Mertens' saxifrage, wood saxifrage, woodland saxifrage |
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Habit | Plants mat-forming, (stems trailing), not stoloniferous, rhizomatous. | Plants solitary or in clumps, not stoloniferous, with caudex or short-rhizomatous. | ||||
Leaves | basal and cauline, (marcescent, crowded); petiole absent; blade (sometimes reddish), linear or linear-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, unlobed, 3–15 mm, leathery, margins entire, stiffly, often hooked, white-ciliate, sometimes also glandular-ciliate, apex acute, white spinulose-mucronate (spine 1–1.5 mm), surfaces glabrous, sometimes adaxially sparsely sessile-glandular. |
basal and cauline, (basal persistent, cauline ± inconspicuous); petiole rounded, 2–20 mm; blade round to reniform, irregularly shallowly lobed, 20–80(–100) mm, thin, margins serrate, stipitate glandular-ciliate, apex obtuse to rounded, surfaces sparsely hairy. |
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Inflorescences | 2–15-flowered cymes or thyrses, sometimes solitary flowers, 5–20 cm, sparsely short stipitate-glandular; bracts sessile. |
30+-flowered, open, much-branched thyrses, usually some or all flowers replaced by bulbils (sometimes bulbils absent), 15–40 cm, dark purple-tipped stipitate-glandular; bracts (± inconspicuous), petiolate or sessile. |
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Flowers | sepals ± erect, (purplish), ovate to triangular, margins eciliate or sparsely glandular, surfaces glabrous or sparsely sessile-glandular; petals yellowish white, purple- or red- to yellow-spotted, oblong to elliptic, 3–7 mm, longer than sepals; ovary superior. |
sepals reflexed (at least in fruit), ovate to elliptic, margins eciliate, surfaces sparsely stipitate-glandular or glabrous; petals white, not spotted, narrowly ovate to elliptic, (3–)4–6 mm, longer than sepals; filaments strongly club-shaped; ovary superior. |
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2n | = 36, ca. 48, 50. |
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Saxifraga bronchialis |
Saxifraga mertensiana |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–summer. | |||||
Habitat | Moist to wet stream banks, mossy cliffs and slopes, waterfall spray zones | |||||
Elevation | 0-2500 m (0-8200 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AK; CO; ID; MT; NM; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; NT; YT; Eurasia; arctic and alpine areas
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AK; CA; ID; MT; OR; WA; AB; BC
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Discussion | Subspecies 4 (2 in the flora). The Saxifraga bronchialis complex, including S. cherlerioides, S. taylorii, S. tricuspidata, and S. vespertina, needs a thorough study. Saxifraga firma Litvinov ex Losina-Losinskaja has been cited for North America; the name belongs in synonymy of a Eurasian subspecies and appears to have been misapplied to North American specimens. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Plants of Saxifraga mertensiana bear bulbils in the axils of basal leaves. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 140. | FNA vol. 8, p. 146. | ||||
Parent taxa | Saxifragaceae > Saxifraga | Saxifragaceae > Saxifraga | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | S. mertensiana var. eastwoodiae | |||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 400. 1753 , | Bongard: Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Pétersbourg, Sér. 6, Sci. Math. 2: 141. 1832 , | ||||
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