Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Smallflower Woodland Star
Lithophragma parviflorum
Saxifrage family (Saxifragaceae)

The flower, the deeply cleft leaves and petals, and the overall shape of Woodland Star are quite similar to the other two Colorado species of Lithophragma, L. glabrum and L. tenellum. L. glabrum is separated from the other two species by the presence of bulblets along its stem. The other two species are separated from each other by the shape, size, and positioning of their . All three species are very slender and delicate, quite , and have petals with a number of deep clefts that give them a starburst appearance.

William Jackson Hooker named this plant Tellima parviflora in 1832 from a specimen that David Douglas collected in Washington in 1825. Thomas Nuttall renamed it Lithophragma parviflorum in 1840.


©2014 Steve Sullivan

Description

, 4-12" tall, with hairy, , often purple stems. are divided nearly to base into 3-5 divisions, which are divided again into or segments. Stem leaves smaller and deeply divided once or twice. White star-shaped flowers have 5 deeply cleft petals and funnel-like in elongating . Petals appear more numerous due to deep .

Field Marks

Dainty white flowers with 5 deeply cleft petals; leaves.

© Al Schneider

palmately compound -- Leaflets radiate from the base of the leaf.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

palmate -- Consisting of leaflets or lobes radiating from the base of the leaf.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

terminal -- Located at the end (the tip or the apex).

Glands are plant structures that secrete liquids, salts or other substances. Glands often appear as hairs with a drop of liquid at the end.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

A raceme is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along its axis.

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.