Swamp saxifrage

Saxifraga nidifica Greene, Erythea 1: 222. 1893; Micranthes plantaginea (Small) Small; S. columbiana Piper; S. integrifolia Hooker var. columbiana (Piper) C. L. Hitchcock; S. integrifolia var. leptopetala (Suksdorf) Engler & Irmscher; S. montana (Small) Fedde; S. plantaginea Small

Plants solitary or in clumps, with bulbils on caudices. Leaves basal; petiole flattened, 1.5-5.5 cm; blade ± ovate to elliptic, 3-6(-7.5) cm, fleshy, base attenuate, margins entire or minutely denticulate, ciliate, surfaces glabrate to sparsely hairy. Inflorescences 30+-flowered, lax, cylindric thyrses with 3-10, ± compact cymules, 10-30 cm, ± densely pink- to purple-tipped stipitate-glandular. Flowers: sepals strongly reflexed, broadly ovate to deltate; petals white to greenish white, not spotted, usually elliptic to obovate, clawed, 1-1.9 mm, equaling or shorter than sepals; filaments linear, flattened; pistils connate to 1/2 their lengths; ovary 1/2+ inferior. Capsules green or reddish purple, folliclelike. 2n = 38.

Flowering spring-summer. Open meadows, shrub-lands, gravelly slopes, edges of and open pine forests; 100-2600 m; B.C.; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Micranthes nidifica is polymorphic and merges to some extent with M. fragosa in limited areas of southern Washington and northern Oregon.