Saxifraga oppositifolia


Saxifraga oppositifolia, the purple saxifrage or purple mountain saxifrage, is a species of plant that is very common in the high Arctic and also some high mountainous areas further south, including northern Britain, the Alps and the Rocky Mountains.

Description

It is a low-growing, densely or loosely matted plant growing up to high, with somewhat woody branches of creeping or trailing habit close to the surface. The leaves are small, rounded, scale-like, opposite in four rows with ciliated margins. The flowers are solitary on short stalks, petals purple or lilac, much longer than the calyx lobes. It is one of the very first spring flowers, continuing to flower during the whole summer in localities where the snow melts later. The flowers grow to about in diameter.

Ecology

Habitat

It grows in all kinds of cold temperate to Arctic habitats, usually found from sea level up to, in many places colouring the landscape.
Swiss botanist Christian Körner found the plant growing at an elevation of in the Swiss alps, making it the highest elevation angiosperm in Europe. It is even known to grow on Kaffeklubben Island in north Greenland, at, the most northerly plant locality in the world.

Species interactions

The flowers of this plant may be consumed by certain animal species, such as the caterpillars of the cold-adapted Gynaephora groenlandica, the Arctic woolly-bear caterpillar.

Uses

It is a popular plant in alpine gardens, though difficult to grow in warm climates.
The edible flower petals are eaten, particularly in parts of Nunavut without abundant berries. They are bitter at first but, after about one second, they become sweet. It is known to the Inuit as aupilaktunnguat. The leaves and stems are brewed for herbal tea: According to many, the tea is best later in the season once the flowers have died.
It serves as the territorial flower of Nunavut in Canada, a symbolic flower of Nordland county in Norway, and the county flower of County Londonderry in Northern Ireland.

Taxonomy

There are a few subspecies, including: