Micranthes pensylvanica

Native

Wet to moderate moisture. Meadows, woods, bogs.

May to June

White or greenish-white

12″ to 36″

This is a 12″ to 36″ tall, erect, perennial forb that rises on a rosette of basal leaves and a single flowering stalk from a caudex and fleshy, translucent roots.

The leaves are all basal and form a rosette. They are leathery, sparsely hairy, and spoon-shaped or lance-shaped. The larger ones are 4″ to 8″ long, and 1½″ to 3″ wide. They taper at the base to a short, broad, reddish-purple leaf stalk and taper to a point or are rounded at the tip. Young leaves are hairy. The upper surface of mature leaves is medium green and hairless or sparsely hairy. The lower surface is paler green and hairy or sparsely hairy. The margins have shallow, rounded teeth.

The flowering stalk (scape) is erect, stout, unbranched, round in cross section, finely grooved, leafless, and densely covered with spreading, sticky hairs.

The inflorescence is a pyramidal, branched cluster (panicle) of convex flower clusters (cymes) at the end of the scape. It is compact and dense at first, becoming loose and elongating as it matures, ultimately 6″ to 18″ long and 2″ to 6″ wide. The branches of the panicle are ascending to spreading and are subtended by a single linear, leaf-like bract.

The flowers are ⅛″ to ¼″ wide. The 5 petals are white or greenish-white, narrow, 1 ⁄16″ to ⅛″ long, spreading, with 1 or 3 veins. There are 5 green sepals that are about the same length as the petals and are joined at the base. The sepals are bent backward when the flowers are fully expanded. There are 10 stamens with white to orangish-brown anthers. At the center of the flower is a large, pale green, cone-shaped hypanthium.

The fruit is a pair of erect, beaked follicles with many seeds.

Early saxifrage (Micranthes virginiensis) is a much smaller plant, 4″ tall at first flowering to 16″ at maturity. The leaves are much smaller, ¾″ to 2″ long. The leaf margins are coarsely toothed. The sepals are spreading or ascending, not bent backward. The flowers are larger. The petals are ⅛″ to ¼″ long. In Minnesota it is found only in the northeast corner and in Lake of the Woods County.

Edible valerian (Valeriana edulis var. ciliata) has leafy flowering stems.

Fen grass of Parnassus (Parnassia glauca) has a slender, hairless scape. The inflorescence is a solitary flower at the end of the scape. The flowers are much larger, up to 1″ wide. The petals are white with many greenish veins. There are only 5 stamens.