Saxifraga paradoxa, commonly known as the fragile saxifrage,[2] is a perennial plant species in the family Saxifragaceae,[3] which occurs as a tertiary relict and endemic Saxifraga species[4] in the South-Eastern Alps.[5] Count Kaspar Maria von Sternberg described this species in his work Revisio Saxifragarum iconibus of 1810.[3]
This perennial species is a deciduous to semi-deciduous low-growing plant that can reach up to 20 cm (8 in) in height and can spread around for approximately 30 cm (12 in)[2] with its ascending to decumbent stems.[6] Its shining and small leaves are mid- to bright green, in shape usually reniform (kidney-like) and slightly lobed.[2][6] Saxifraga paradoxa characteristic are also small pale green coloured flowers that have linearly-shaped petals, red anthers and are arranged into an axillary cyme.[2][7] The plant's flowering period is between May and August.[8]
This Saxifraga species native range are South-Eastern Alps, with most of its populations inhabiting Slovenia and Austria.[3] In Austria Saxifraga paradoxa occurs in Carinthia and Styria,[7] while in Slovenia its growing area includes valleys of rivers Hudinja[9] and Lobnica (tributary of Drava)[10] near Pohorje, as well as Kozjak mountains and Košenjak.[7] Its habitat usually consists of damp and shaded rocky screes with non-calcareous basis, mostly containing granite and gneiss.[6][11] After this species Slovakian botanist Ladislav Mucina named plant community Saxifragetum paradoxae, with Saxifraga paradoxa being its characteristic species.[4]
Saxifraga paradoxa has not yet been evaluated for the IUCN Red List.[12]
So-called European purple saxifrages (members of Saxifraga's section Porphyrion and subsection Oppositifoliae) are a big group of numerous taxa with uncertain taxonomic position, widely distributed in mountain ranges of central and southern Europe. Researchers studied their evolutionary relationship with a use of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting and Saxifraga paradoxa was shown not to be genetically divergent taxon.[13] Recent research treats Saxifraga paradoxa as a member of Saxifraga's section Saxifraga and subsection Arachnoideae.[14][15]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) Saxifraga paradoxa, commonly known as the fragile saxifrage, is a perennial plant species in the family Saxifragaceae, which occurs as a tertiary relict and endemic Saxifraga species in the South-Eastern Alps. Count Kaspar Maria von Sternberg described this species in his work Revisio Saxifragarum iconibus of 1810.
