Saxifraga mertensiana |
Saxifraga rivularis |
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Merten's or wood or woodland saxifrage, Mertens' saxifrage, wood saxifrage, woodland saxifrage |
alpine-brook saxifrage, weak saxifrage |
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Habit | Plants solitary or in clumps, not stoloniferous, with caudex or short-rhizomatous. | Plants (delicate), loosely tufted or matted, (green to purple), stoloniferous, weakly rhizomatous, (with bulbils in axils of basal leaves). | ||||
Leaves | 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. |
basal and cauline; petiole ± flattened, 2–30(–50) mm; blade reniform, 3–5(–7)-lobed (lobes rounded, sometimes ± obtuse, distalmost unlobed), (2.6–)3.7–5.2(–7.4) mm, slightly fleshy, margins entire, eciliate or sparsely glandular-ciliate, without lime-secreting hydathodes (with nonsecreting hydathodes at lobe apices), apex acute, surfaces glabrous. |
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Inflorescences | 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. |
2–3(–5)-flowered cymes, sometimes solitary flowers, (flowers pedicellate), 1.7–7 cm, glabrous or sparsely to ± densely tangled, pink-tipped stipitate-glandular; bracts (2–3), petiolate, (unlobed or 1–3-lobed, reduced). |
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Flowers | 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. |
(hypanthium U-shaped in longisection); sepals erect, (sometimes rusty brown), elliptic to ovate, margins eciliate or sparsely glandular-ciliate, glabrous or sparsely to densely stipitate-glandular; petals white, sometimes pink tinged, not spotted, oblong to elliptic, 2–6 mm, to 2–3 times length of sepals; ovary 1/2 inferior. |
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2n | = 36, ca. 48, 50. |
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Saxifraga mertensiana |
Saxifraga rivularis |
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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; CA; ID; MT; OR; WA; AB; BC
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AK; NH; NU; QC; n Eurasia
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Discussion | Plants of Saxifraga mertensiana bear bulbils in the axils of basal leaves. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). Some reports of Saxifraga sibirica Linnaeus from Canada are misidentifications of this species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 146. | FNA vol. 8, p. 144. | ||||
Parent taxa | Saxifragaceae > Saxifraga | Saxifragaceae > Saxifraga | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | S. mertensiana var. eastwoodiae | |||||
Name authority | Bongard: Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Pétersbourg, Sér. 6, Sci. Math. 2: 141. 1832 , | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 404. (1753) | ||||
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