8/16/2014 9:41 AM
Micranthes nidifica, peak saxifrage or swamp saxifrage is
not, in my opinion, a handsome plant. It is an interesting plant.
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It is native.
Many sources say they are found in moist areas. I found them
in dry areas. The sources did not exclude them from dry areas.
Burke has M. nidifica in most Washington
counties east of the Cascades, east to Idaho ,
south to northern California and Nevada . Other sources
have them in Wyoming and Utah . A California
map has them far south in California
but only in the mountains. Most sources have them only in western USA but one map has them in India and China .
It is perennial. It rises from a caudex on a system of
Rhizomes, according to North American flora. They also say that there are
bulbils, little bulbs, on the caudex. That doesn’t make sense to me, but what
do I know. Perhaps next year I will know more. I’m writing in mid-August, 2014,
so the M. nidifica will not be available for study.
I don’t have good photo coverage of the plant yet. The
photos I do have don’t agree nicely with the plant descriptions from my
internet sources. Disclaimer: I am not a botanist or a photographer. I’ve
learned a little botany over the years of this effort by osmosis. The knowledge
is incomplete. Actually my knowledge is rather skimpy. So, when I disagree with
authority … well … it’s a problem.
Leaves and Flower
Stalk [the peduncle]
The leaves of M. nidifica are all basal, the flower stalk is
bare [no ‘cauline’ leaves]. [I have photos of what must be another species of
Micranthes with leaves on the stem, leaves in the inflorescence and pistils
that are bright red. See below.]
The leaves have a stem [a petiole]. They are usually rather
broad at the base coming to a point at the tip [the apex]. They are somewhat
fleshy.
The margin of the leaves is smooth or slightly dentate
[toothed]. The brown specks in the photo are presumably tiny teeth.
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The flower stalk is thickly covered with glandular ‘hair’
[trichomes], with drops of goo their tips.
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Inflorescence
The inflorescence looks to be tight balls of flowers, the
first apical [at the top of the stem], lateral balls developing on short, stout
stalks later. The author of the Flora of North America website has vocabulary fun
with his/her description of the inflorescence. It is a cylindric thyrsus. The
common lilac has a thursus. The M. nidifica inflorescence doesn’t look like a
lilac. In a thursus he main stem is racemose, that is, it is indeterminate, it
keeps budding and flowering … growing. The lateral branches are determinate.
There is a flower at the end of the branch that ‘stops’ growth.
The infoplease.com description of the inflorescence is also,
well … a mouth full. It is “… a compact panicle having an obscured main axis
and cymose subaxes.”
However that may be. The inflorescences look like little
balls of flowers, one on the top, others branching from the sides of the stem.
Buds
The inflorescence begins with a single bud at the top of the
stem.
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Other buds develop and become the terminal bud. What was a
terminal bud is now a lateral bud. Frankly, that doesn’t seem obvious from my
photos but that’s how I understand it. It is ‘racemose’, [indeterminate]
inflorescence developing on the flower stalk. The short lateral stalks are
bearing cymose [determinate] inflorescences.
The reddish bracts in the photo below seem to be associated
with the cymose inflorescences, not with the individual flowers. They don’t
seem to be organized into a nice little ring around the branch [an involucel].
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Flowers
Time for another disclaimer: My daughter, April, and I took
these photos of this and that, here and there. We were not looking ahead to
this publication. We did not know what we were photographing. I am ‘making do’
with what I have.
The sources seem to agree that there are petals and sepals.
The petals are said to be white or greenish-white. I see no white petals in my
photos. My photos don’t help much with distinguishing petals and sepals, they
are similar in color. The sepals are said to be more pointed, the petals more
round.
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The sepals are said to be ‘strongly reflexed’. This must be
later in the development of the flower. My photos seem to show late flowers
with both petals and sepals ‘reflexed’ exposing the stamens and the pistils to
anyone who happens to come along.
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The photo below shows one flower open, its petals and sepals
‘out of the way’, a nearer flower is just opening, the protective sepals and
petals just revealing the anthers.
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Burke writes of a broadly conic calyx with 5 lobes that are
reflexed. In the photo below the two flowers in the lower right show a conic
calyx. The 5 lobes are not clearly seen.
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Stamen and Pistil
Flora of North America says the filaments of the stamen are
flattened and so they seem to be.
It also says that the pistils are ‘connate’ [fused] to half
their length. My photos seem to show two bulbous green pistils side by side in
each flower but there is no way of telling if they are fused … not from the
photos.
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Fruit
I have no photos of the fruit, I’m sad to say. The fruit is
said to be a follicle or, in Flora of North America that it is a capsule that
is follicle-like. Milkweed and larkspur have follicles. They are somewhat pod-like
but open only on one side.
Root
M. nidifica rises from a caudex on a system of Rhizomes,
according to North American flora. I have not dug and photographed the roots.
They also say that there are bulbils, little bulbs, on the caudex.
Strangers
Near the middle of the park, east of long rock ridge and
north of slatsz’ stump there is a small patch of M. nidifica like saxifrage
that have leaves on the stem and leaves in the inflorescence.
*
3 Locator photos
The strangers are in the center of the grassland area of the
park. The photo below is looking due west. The small patch of black hawthorn is
on a small hill in the middle distance. The large box is the patch of
strangers. The small box is M. nidifica.
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Same view with small basalt flag stones that might be a help
finding the patch.
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The boxes in this view are all M. nidifica. It is just a
triangulation. Slatsz’ stump in the middle distance. The patch of shrubs behind
and to the left of slatsz’ stump is golden currant. The rise to the right is
long rock ridge.
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A side view of the little patch
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A top view of the little patch
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Basal leaves
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Side views of the inflorescence in bud
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Close up of cauline leaf node with buds
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Top views of the inflorescence in bud
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Close up of bud apparently unfolding
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Leaf insertions in plant top
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Stranger and Stranger
These photos from the year before, 2011. I supposed they
were from the same patch but they do not show the cauline leaves. There are no
leaves at all above the basal leaves. There are distinctive stipules at the
branches. The branches are longer and more vertical.
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The basal leaves are not different. The different shapes of
leaves show up on the same plant in photos more definitely M. nidifica.
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The bright red pistils must be distinctive. Disclaimer: More
work for next year. Perhaps this is only a failure to observe the changes in
the later stages of M. nidifica. Better images next year … maybe.
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