Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Parnassia glauca Raf.
- Family: Saxifrage (Saxifragaceae)
- Flowering: July-October
- Field Marks: This is the only grass-of-Parnassus with oval, leathery leaves, sessile petals and sterile stamens shorter than or about as long as the fertile stamens.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, shores.
- Habit: Perennial herb from thickened rootstocks.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched, smooth, up to 2 feet tall, bearing one flower and one leaf.
- Leaves: Basal leaves oval, leathery, smooth, without teeth, the bases rounded to subcordate, a little longer than broad, up to 3 inches long, on long stalks; stem leaf 1, clasping the stem.
- Flowers: Solitary at the tip of the stem, up to 1 1/2 inches across.
- Sepals: 5, green, barely united at the base, persistent on the fruit.
- Petals: 5, free from each other, white with conspicuous veins, oblong to oval, up to 3/4 inch long, each with a 3-branched sterile stamen at its base.
- Stamens: 5 fertile, longer than or equalling the 5, 3-branched sterile stamens.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
- Fruits: Capsules ovoid, smooth.
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