Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to Alberta, Idaho, and Montana.
Habitat: Wet ledges, shaded seeps on rock faces, and gravelly stream banks from sea level to the subalpine.
Flowers: April-August
Origin: Native
Growth Duration: Perennial
Conservation Status: Not of concern
Pollination: Apomixis, bees, flies
Usually soft-hairy, succulent perennial from short, thick rhizomes, tending to form large clumps, the flowering stems 1.5-4 dm. tall.
Leaves basal, with petioles up to 4 times as long as the blades, with well-developed, membranous, sheathing stipules, the basal ones usually with bulblets in their axils; leaf blades reniform to orbicular, 3-10 cm. broad and nearly as long, coarsely lobed, the lobes toothed.
Inflorescence an open, many-flowered panicle, usually with at least some of the flowers replaced with pinkish bulblets; calyx cleft nearly to the base, the 5 lobes reflexed, lanceolate, sparsely glandular-pubescent; petals 5, white, 3-5 mm. long, oblong-elliptic, 3-5 mm. long, narrowed abruptly to the base; stamens 10, filaments white, somewhat petaloid, anthers pink.
Ovary mostly superior; carpels 2 or 3; capsule about 5 mm. long.
PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Saxifraga mertensiana in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database
WA Flora Checklist: Saxifraga mertensiana checklist entry
OregonFlora: Saxifraga mertensiana information
E-Flora BC: Saxifraga mertensiana atlas page
CalPhotos: Saxifraga mertensiana photos