Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Parnassia palustris L.
- Family: Saxifrage (Saxifragaceae)
- Flowering: July-October
- Field Marks: This species differs from others in the genus by its unfringed petals that have 3-13 veins.
- Habitat: Wet meadows and other moist places.
- Habit: Perennial herb with short rootstocks.
- Stems: Upright, slender, unbranched, up to 1 1/2 feet tall, smooth, bearing a single leaf (often called a bract) about 1/3 the way up the stem.
- Leaves: All basal except for the single, ovate, sessile leaf (or bract) about 1/3 way up the stem; basal leaves ovate, heart-shaped to tapering to the base, up to 1 1/2 inches long, smooth, without teeth, on stalks up to 4 inches long.
- Flowers: Solitary on the stem, up to 1 inch across.
- Sepals: 5, green, united below to form a short floral tube, lanceolate to ovate, pointed at the tip, 1/4-1/2 inch long, with 5-7 veins.
- Petals: 5, white, free from each other, ovate to obovate, up to 1/2 inch long, not fringed, with 3-13 veins.
- Stamens: 5 fertile, with many sterile stamens present consisting of slender, gland-tipped filaments up to 1/3 inch long.
- Pistils: Ovary more or less superior or slightly inferior.
- Fruits: Capsules ovoid, up to 1/2 inch long, subtended by the persistent sepals, with
numerous tiny, angular seeds.
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