Saxifraga oppositifolia, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1964, Flora Europaea - Volume 1. Lycopodiaceae to Platanaceae, Cambridge University Press : 377

93. S. oppositifolia L. , Sp. Pl. 402 (1753) .

Stems procumbent or ascending, forming a loose mat or a more or less compact cushion. Leaves 2-6 mm, opposite (the upper ones rarely alternate), suborbicular to obovate-lanceolate, of a dull, often bluish green, thick, keeled below, plane or somewhat recurved at the tip, ciliate at least towards the base; hydathodes 1-5. Flowering stems very short, leafy, glandular-pubescent, 1-flowered. Sepals ciliate. Petals 5-15 x 2-7 mm, pale pink to deep purple; anthers bluish. 2« = 26. Arctic and subarctic Europe and on most o f the mountain-ranges southwards to the Sierra Nevada, C. Italy and Bulgaria. Al Au Br Bu Cz Fa Fe G a Ge H b He Hs Is It Ju No Po Rm Rs (N) Sb Su. Extremely variable in habit, size and colour of flower, form, size and ciliation of leaf, and number of hydathodes. This variation shows little geographical consistency, and in view o f the wide range of the species the elevation to subspecific rank of local populations of characteristic facies is scarcely justified. Among the variants that are often treated as subspecies (here cited for convenience by their binomials) are: S. rudolphiana Hornsch. ex Koch, Syn. FI. Germ. 269 (1835). Very compact; small in all its parts; leaves c. 2 mm, densely imbricate. E. (? and C.) Alps. S. blepharophylla Kerner ex Hayek , Österr. Bot. Zeitschr. 52: 329 (1902). Leaves very obtuse, with long cilia in apical half. Austrian Alps. S. murithiana Tiss. , Bull. Trav. Soc. Murith. 1: 27 (1868). Cilia of calyx gland-tipped; leaves with 1 hydathode. S. W. Europe and Alps. S. latina (N. Terrace.) Hayek, Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Math.- Nat. Kl. (Wien) 'll: 678 (1905). Similar, but with 3 hydathodes. Appennini. S. speciosa (Dörfler & Hayek) Dörfler & Hayek in Hayek, op. cit. 677 (1905). Apical part of leaf with broad cartilaginous margin, without cilia. Flowers large. C. Italy (Appennini Abruzzesi). Plants from Spitsbergen which are perhaps assignable to the Arctic-American S. pulvinata Small , Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 2: 172 (1901), are said to be tetraploid (2n = 52).