Starry saxifrage, saxifrage étoilée

Saxifraga stellaris Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 400. 1753

Plants tufted or mat-forming, with ± branched caudices or stolonlike rhizomes. Leaves basal; petiole ± absent; blade obovate to elliptic, 1-5 cm, ± fleshy, base cuneate, margins 1-3-toothed in distal 1/2, ciliate, surfaces hairy. Inflorescences 2-10-flowered, open, lax cymes, sometimes solitary flowers, (all or some flowers replaced with bulbils, bulbils sometimes absent), 5-20 cm, sparsely to moderately purple-tipped stipitate-glandular. Flowers: sepals reflexed, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate; petals white, each with 1-2 basal yellow spots, lanceolate, clawed, 3-8 mm (2 often slightly larger), longer than sepals; filaments linear, flattened; pistils connate 1/2+ their lengths; ovary superior, (to 1/3 adnate to hypanthium). Capsules green to purple, valvate. 2n = 28.

Flowering summer. Mossy tundra near streams, rocky, gravelly seepage areas; 0-500 m; Greenland; Nfld. and Labr. (Labr.), Nunavut, Que.; Europe.

Micranthes stellaris is amphi-Atlantic. In Nunavut, it is known only from Baffin Island.