Page authors: Don Knoke, David Giblin
Micranthes lyallii
Lyall's saxifrage, red-stemmed saxifrage
Specimens
Photos

Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in northern Washington; Alaska to Washington, east to Alberta, Idaho, and Montana.

Habitat: Wet, gravelly meadows and along streams and ponds at high elevations.

Flowers: July-September

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bees, flies, beetles, wasps

Description:
General:

Perennial with well-developed rhizomes, often forming small mats.

Leaves:

Leaves all basal, the leaves wedge-shaped to fan-shaped, 10-25 mm. long and nearly as broad, coarsely dentate with 7-9 teeth, with slender petioles of similar length, glabrous or with a few soft, brown hairs.

Flowers:

Inflorescence, calyx and fruits often bright red; inflorescence a cyme with up to 15 flowers, the peduncles slender, often with linear, entire bracts; calyx lobed almost to the base, the 5 lobes oblong-lanceolate, 2-3 mm. long, sharply reflexed; petals 5, white, aging to pink, 2.5-4 mm. long, the blade oblong-oval, rounded to a short, broad claw; stamens 10, equaling the petals, the filaments white, club-shaped; carpels often 3-5, fused only 0.5-1 mm., the ovary mostly superior, the carpels tapered to styles less than 1 mm. long.

Fruits:

Follicle 7-12 mm. long exclusive of the slender, divergent, stylar beaks.

Accepted Name:
Micranthes lyallii (Engl.) Small
Publication: N. Amer. Fl. 22: 143. 1905. 1905.

Synonyms & Misapplications:
Saxifraga lyallii Engl. [HC]
Saxifraga lyallii Engl. ssp. hultenii (Calder & Savile) Calder & Savile [KZ99]
Saxifraga lyallii Engl. ssp. lyallii [KZ99]
Saxifraga lyallii Engl. var. hultenii Calder & Savile
Saxifraga lyallii Engl. var. laxa Engl.
Additional Resources:

PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Micranthes lyallii in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database

WA Flora Checklist: Micranthes lyallii checklist entry

OregonFlora: Micranthes lyallii information

E-Flora BC: Micranthes lyallii atlas page

CalPhotos: Micranthes lyallii photos

16 photographs:
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