Bulblet Saxifrage

Found here in the Karakorum range and Gilgit (O. Polunin 6227, Stewart, l.c.) on stony and pebbly slopes and in rock crevices at c. 4500 m.

Herb, 4-13 cm high, sometimes branching. Basal leaves 8-10 x 4-10 mm, reniform with rounded to acute lobes; petiole c. 1.5 cm long. Cauline leaves lanceolate, with bulbils in their axils; bulbils red. Flowers white, terminal. Sepals 2-4 mm, ovate, subacute, pubescent. Petals c. 6 mm, oval-oblong, narrow at the base. Carpels almost free; style short.

Stem branched or simple, 6-25 cm tall, glandular pubescent, with conspicuous, red or brown bulbils in axils of cauline leaves. Basal leaves with petiole 3-8 cm, crisped glandular villous near base, elsewhere glandular pubescent; leaf blade reniform, 0.7-1.5 × 0.9-1.8 cm, margin generally 5-7-lobed; lobes broadly ovate, glandular pubescent. Proximal cauline leaves with petiole 0.3-3.4 cm, glandular pubescent; leaf blade reniform, 0.8-2 × 1-2.4 cm, glandular pubescent, margin 5-7(-9)-lobed; distal cauline leaves with petiole shorter, leaf blade 3-lobed at margin. Cyme 2-5-flowered or flower solitary; bulbils present in bract axils; pedicels 0.6-3 cm, glandular pubescent. Sepals erect, elliptic or ovate to suboblong, 3-3.7 × 1-2.8 mm, abaxially and marginally glandular pubescent, veins 3(-7), not, partly, or fully confluent at apex, apex subobtuse or acute. Petals white or yellowish, obovate to narrowly so, 4.5-10.5 × 2.1-4.1 mm, 3-8(-10)-veined, base gradually contracted into a claw 1.2-1.8 mm, apex retuse or obtuse. Stamens 4-5.5 mm. Ovary subsuperior, ovoid; styles 0.9-2 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep. 2n = 36, 48, 50, 52, 56, 60-70.

Distribution: Forest and Arctic zones of W. & E. Siberia; N. America; W. Asia; Alps of Europe; Himalayas & W. Tibet, from 4600-5700 m.

WC Hebei (Xiaowutai Shan), S Jilin (Fusong Xian), E Nei Mongol, N Ningxia (Helan Shan), Qinghai, S Shaanxi (Taibai Shan), N Shanxi (Ningwu Xian), W Sichuan, Xinjiang (Bogda Shan), Xizang, NW Yunnan [India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; Europe, North America].

Fl.Per.: July-September.

Forests, forest margins, alpine meadows, alpine rock crevices; 2200-5500 m.

Lobaria cernua (Linnaeus) Haworth; Saxifraga cernua f. bulbillosa Engler & Irmscher; S. cernua var. linnaeana Seringe; S. cernua f. ramosa J. G. Gmelin; S. cernua f. simplicissima Ledebour.

Saxifraga cernua
Add to the illustrations: Britt. & Brown, 111. Fl. ed. 2./. 2166; Brown & Schaffer, Alp. Fl. Can. pi. 36, f. 1.

Saxifraga simulata Small, sp. nov
Stems 9-22 cm. tall, sparingly glandular-pubescent, gregarious; leaf-blades reniform or orbicular-reniform in outline, 8-21 mm. wide, those of the basal and lower cauline leaves long-petioled, shallowly and broadly 5-7-lobed, the lobes much broader than long, the upper stem-leaves with 3-5-lobed blades ; flowers represented by clusters of bulblets, except the terminal one; hypanthium 1.5 mm. long during an thesis; sepals pblong-ovate, 3-3.5 mm. long; petals fiddle-shaped, 6-7 mm. long, clawless; follicles not seen.
Type collected at Sylvan Lake and Harney Peak, Black Hills, South Dakota, July 21, 1892, by P. A. Rydberg, no. 681.
Distribution : Black Hills, South Dakota to Colorado.

Saxifraga cernua, the drooping saxifrage, nodding saxifrage or bulblet saxifrage, is a flower common all over the High Arctic. It stretches further south in mountainous areas of the Alps, Norway, Iceland, Siberia and Alaska.

It grows to 10–20 cm tall and the stem has 3–7 leaves. The basal and lower stern leaves are kidney-shaped, 3–5 lobed on long petioles. The flowers are mostly single and terminal. Petals are white and are much longer than the sepals. The plant reproduces by means of brownish-red bulbils in the axils of the upper stem leaves. Flowers bloom June to August.

This plant grows in moist sandy and mossy places, on ledges and in snow beds.

It became a protected species in the UK in 1975 under the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act.