Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Saxifraga oppositifolia

Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp. smalliana
Saxifraga oppositifolia

purple mountain saxifrage, purple or purple mountain saxifrage, purple saxifrage, saxifrage à feuilles opposées, twinflower saxifrage
Photo is of parent taxon

purple mountain saxifrage, Small's saxifrage
Habit Plants mat- or cushion-forming (with trailing, ± woody stems), not stoloniferous, rhizomatous.
Leaves

cauline (marcescent, crowded), opposite (rarely alternate);

petiole absent;

blade oblong to ± broadly obovate, unlobed, 2–5 mm, leathery, margins entire, bristly-ciliate, with 1(–3) lime-secreting hydathodes (in pit, secretion obvious), apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous.

Inflorescences

solitary flowers, ebracteate, 1–5 cm, glabrate or sparsely purple-tipped stipitate-glandular.

Flowers

sepals erect, ovate, margins stiffly ciliate or not, surfaces hairy, stipitate-glandular, or glabrous;

petals purple to pink, rarely white, often drying violet, not spotted, obovate to elliptic, (2–)5–12(–20) mm, longer than sepals;

ovary ± superior.

Capsules

± folliclelike.

Sepals

margins glandular-ciliate, abaxial surface glabrous or stipitate-glandular, sometimes hairy.

Saxifraga oppositifolia

Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp. smalliana
Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Arctic and alpine tundra, mountain ledges, rock crevices
Elevation 0-3000 m [0-9800 ft]
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CO; ID; MT; NY; OR; VT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; NS; NT; NU; ON; QC; YT; Eurasia; arctic and alpine
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; YT
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 7 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Sepal margins bristly-ciliate
subsp. oppositifolia
1. Sepal margins glandular-ciliate
subsp. smalliana
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 136. FNA vol. 8, p. 136.
Parent taxa Saxifragaceae > Saxifraga Saxifragaceae > Saxifraga > Saxifraga oppositifolia
Sibling taxa
S. adscendens, S. aizoides, S. aleutica, S. bracteata, S. bronchialis, S. cernua, S. cespitosa, S. cherlerioides, S. chrysantha, S. debilis, S. eschscholtzii, S. flagellaris, S. hirculus, S. hyperborea, S. mertensiana, S. nathorstii, S. paniculata, S. radiata, S. rivularis, S. serpyllifolia, S. taylorii, S. tricuspidata, S. tridactylites, S. vespertina
S. oppositifolia subsp. oppositifolia
Subordinate taxa
S. oppositifolia subsp. oppositifolia, S. oppositifolia subsp. smalliana
Synonyms S. oppositifolia var. smalliana, S. oppositifolia subsp. glandulisepala
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 402. 1753 , (Engler & Irmscher) Hultén: Ark. Bot., n. s. 7: 69. (1968)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers