Saxifrage Family – Saxifragaceae
Actual flower size: 1/3 inch across
The former Latin name for this flower was Mitella breweri.
Plant Description: Brewer’s Mitrewort has a flowering stem that is 4 to 16 inches tall, leafless, glandular hairy, with 20 to 60 tiny flowers along the upper half. The broad basal leaves are 1 to 4 inches across, heart to kidney-shaped with scalloped edges, and hairless to sparsely hairy.
Flower Description: The flowers are 1/4 to 1/2 inch across. They are like greenish-yellow saucers with 5 round lobes and 5 TV-antenna-like petals that are very narrow and have 3 to 5 thread-like appendages branching off horizontally. The 5 stamen with two anthers rise between the petals and a two-carpeled pistil sits in the center. When it goes to seed, the tiny black seeds sit in an open shallow cup.
Ecology: Brewer’s Mitrewort grows in moist woods and meadows, along stream banks and in seep areas at middle to subalpine elevations across the state. It sometimes forms a carpet of plants.
Note: The genus of this plant has recently been changed from Saxifrage to Micranthes. See the note below the gallery on the Saxifrage Family page and the “APG Changes” page for more information.