Saxifraga hyperborea, the pygmy saxifrage, is a plant species native to Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Russia, Spitsbergen, and from mountainous areas in the western United States. One report from Mount Washington in New Hampshire is unverified. The plant grows in wet tundra, snow banks, stream banks and lake sides at elevations up to 3000 m. The US populations have been called S. debilis or S. rivularis in various publications.[3]

Pygmy saxifrage
Saxifraga hyperborea
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Saxifragaceae
Genus: Saxifraga
Species:
S. hyperborea
Binomial name
Saxifraga hyperborea
Synonyms[1][2]
  • Saxifraga cernua var. debilis (Engelm. ex A. Gray) Engl.
  • Saxifraga debilis Engelm.
  • Saxifraga flexuosa Sternb.
  • Saxifraga hyperborea subsp. debilis (Engelm.) Á.Löve, D.Löve & B.M.Kapoor
  • Saxifraga rivularis var. debilis (Engelm.) Dorn
  • Saxifraga rivularis subsp. hyperborea (R. Br.) Dorn
  • Saxifraga rivularis var. flexuosa (Sternb.) Engl. & Irmsch.
  • Saxifraga rivularis var. hyperborea (R. Br.) Hook.
  • Saxifraga rivularis var. purpurascens Lange

Saxifraga hyperborea is a small mat-forming herb sometimes appearing purple, with a woody caudex. Flowers are purple or white, up to 5 mm across.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

References

edit
  1. ^ Tropicos
  2. ^ The Plant List
  3. ^ a b Flora of North America v 8 p 144.
  4. ^ Brown, Robert. 1823. Chloris Melvilliana 16.
  5. ^ Dorn, Robert D. 1988. Vascular Plants of Wyoming 300.
  6. ^ Hooker, William Jackson. 1832. Flora Boreali-Americana 1(5): 246.
  7. ^ Böcher, T. W. 1978. Greenlands Flora 326 pp.
  8. ^ Moss, E. H. 1983. Flora of Alberta (ed. 2) i–xii, 1–687. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.