Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Saxifraga arguta D. Don
- Family: Saxifrage (Saxifragaceae)
- Flowering: July-August
- Field Marks: This saxifrage has nearly round leaves, white flowers borne in an open panicle, and nearly round petals with slender claws at the base.
- Habitat: Along streams in the mountains.
- Habit: Perennial herb with rhizomes.
- Stems: Bearing only flowers and no leaves, up to 6 inches long, smooth or glandular-hairy near the tip.
- Leaves: All basal, nearly round, up to 3 1/2 inches across, heart-shaped at the base, coarsely toothed, smooth; leaf stalks slender, up to 8 inches long.
- Flowers: Few to several in an open panicle on a leafless stem, the branchlets of the panicle sometimes purplish and minutely glandular-hairy.
- Sepals: 5, green or purple, united at the base, lanceolate to oblong, up to 1/10 inch long, usually smooth.
- Petals: 5, white with 2-3 yellow dots near base, free from each other, nearly round but with a slender claw at the base, each petal up to 1/6 inch long.
- Stamens: 10, the filaments broadened and petal-like.
- Pistils: 2, united at base, the ovary superior.
- Fruits: Capsules usually 2, beaked, more or less purplish, 1/6-1/3 inch long.
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