Saxifraga exilis Stephan ex Sternberg, Revis. Saxifrag., suppl. 1: 8, plate 3, fig. 1. 1821, not Pollini 1816

Plants in tufts, not stoloniferous, weakly rhizomatous (with bulbils at leaf bases). Leaves basal and cauline (basal ephemeral); petiole flattened, 5-15 mm; blade reniform, 5-7-lobed usually more than halfway to midvein (cauline less-lobed distally), 5-20 mm, thin to slightly fleshy, margins entire, eciliate, apex obtuse to acute, surfaces glabrous or glabrate to ± long-hairy. Inflorescences 2-5-flowered cymes, 5-18 cm, purple-tipped stipitate-glandular; bracts petiolate. Flowers: sepals erect, (sometimes purplish), ovate to lanceolate, margins glandular-ciliate or eciliate, surfaces glabrous; petals white, sometimes with purple veins, not spotted, obovate to narrowly oblanceolate, 7-15 mm, longer than sepals; ovary 1/4-1/3 inferior. 2n = 26, 48, 52.

Flowering summer. Snow-bed meadows, stream banks; 0-1500 m; N.W.T., Yukon; Alaska; Asia (Siberia).