Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

25. Saxifragaceae, the Saxifrage Family

1. Mitella L. -- Bishop's cap

1. Mitella nuda L.

Small rhizomatous and often stoloniferous perennial with scapes 0.7-2.5 dm tall, glandular-pubescent especially upward. Leaves all basal or with 1 sessile or short-petioled leaf below the middle on the scape; blades rotund-cordate to reniform, 1-3.5 cm across, sparingly hirsute at least on the upper surface, crenate on the margin; petioles mostly 2-9 cm long; stipules brownish, ovate, 2-4 mm long. Flowers small, greenish, in racemes of 3-12 flowers; sepals ovate, 1-2 mm long; petals green, pinnately divided into usually 4 pairs of filiform segments, 2-4 mm long; stamens 10; pistil 2-carpellary, stigmas 2, on short divergent styles, ovary ca. 1/2 inferior or less; hypanthium saucer-shaped; pedicels 1-6 mm long. Capsules splitting open widely, the seeds rather few, black, shiny, ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm long. Jun--Jul. Bogs and swamps, often growing among mosses; rare, with records from Bottineau and Pembina Counties, ND; (Labr. to AK, s to PA, MI, MN, ND, MT and WA; also e Asia).

Mitella nuda.

Map key

Return to Family -- Saxifragaceae - The Saxifrage Family
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