English: Tufted saxifrage; Tufted alpine saxifrage.
Region: arctic heights, Alps, Norway, Scotland, Wales, Iceland, Siberia, western North America and Greenland.
Habitat: ledges and gravelly places; rock faces, wind-exposed heaths, frostlands, crevices, gravels, fell heaths; prefers calcium rich soil.
BotanyHerb; perennial; densely tufted; 5 to 15 cm tall.
Root: stout taproot.
Stem: stalk sparsely leaved, glandular-hairy, often reddish; very short; with trichomes in the form of glandular hair.
Leaves: basal rosette and alternate along stem; short-stalked; rosette leaf blades obovate, glandular-hairy, light green, occasionally reddish, 3–5-lobed, toothed, lobes blunt; stem leaf blades linear, entire.
Inflorescence a 1–3-flowered corymb; 5 to 10 cm.
Flowers: flowering July to August.
Corolla: regular, actinomorphic; white, sometimes reddish or yellowish, greenish scales; ± 1 cm wide; petals five, 4 to 6 mm long, twice the calyx.
Calyx: sepals 5.
Andoecium: stamens 10.
Gynoecium: style 2, formed from two fused carpels.
Fruit: 2-parted capsule.