| Saxifraga nivalis L. | |||
| |||
| Family | Saxifragaceae — APG family: Saxifragaceae | ||
| Common name | snow saxifrage | ||
| Description | Basal leaves thick, grossly dentate, green and glabrous above, purple and more or less rufous-pubescent below, ciliate in margin; stem single, pubescent with curly, septate, dark or reddish hairs; inflorescence glandular-pubescent, capitate or loose; petals white or mostly reddish, elliptic, obtuse, slightly longer than calyx lobes; follicles ovate, with divergent beak. | ||
| Ecology | Dry slopes, in the mountains to at least 1,700 meters. Described from the Alps of Spitzbergen, Lapland, “Arvonicis,” Virginia, and Canada. | ||
| Taxonomy notes | Highly variable. Two varieties should be mentioned: var. ténuis Wabhlenb. [S. tenuis (Wahlenb.) H. Sm.], with small, nearly glabrous leaves and acute, reflexed follicle beaks; and var. rufopilosa Hult. (S. rufidula, with respect to Alaskan plant; S. eriphora S. Wats.?), with densely pubescent, rufous-haired leaves and red petals. |
This is a digital representation of Eric Hultén’s ‘Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories: A Manual of the Vascular Plants’, which was published by Stanford University Press in 1968. The book was digitized by C. Webb (at UAMN) as part of the Flora of Alaska project, with funding by the US NSF (Grant 1759964 to Ickert-Bond & Webb), and with permission of Stanford University Press. Data and images © 1968 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. Univ. Usage licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0. NB: You may find OCR errors; please refer to the hard-copy if in doubt.