English: Alpine saxifrage; Encrusted saxifrage; Lifelong saxifrage; Lime-encrusted saxifrage; Livelong saxifrage; White Mountain saxifrage; Silver saxifrage.
Region: Central Europe, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Caucasus, North America, northern Great Lakes region, New England, New York State, Vermont, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland Island, New Brunswick, Minnesota, Labrador.
Habitat: temperate northern hemisphere; calciphile, in calcareous habitats, crevice of a basic rock, basalt, volcanic rock conglomerates; shady; requires very sharp drainage in an alkaline or neutral soil. It is therefore often to be found in a rock garden or alpine house. It has given rise to
Use: ornamental garden plant, hardy, but dislikes winter wetness; numerous hybrids and cultivars.
BotanyAlpine herb; perennial; stoloniferous, grow with horizontal, long stolons; ability to close its leaf rosettes when undergoing deleterious environmental conditions such as excessive heat and droughts, gives very high resistance to sustained photo-inhibition and irreversible dehydration.
Stem: 10 to 30 cm in height.
Leaves: highly dense basal rosette of leaves; leathery; flat; stiff; 1 to 3 cm long; oblong to ovate; densely toothed; fine leaf margins; a lime-encrusted white pore is present at the base of each leaf.
Inflorescence: erect stems, with reduced and scattered leaves which terminate in a somewhat elongated cluster.
Flowers: white; ± 1 cm across; with purplish or red dots; blooming from mid-to-late June to early August; perfect, with both stamens and carpels; petals 5; styles 2; one inferior ovary and a two-beaked seed capsule; protandrous; can self-pollinate.