Saxifrage Family – Saxifragaceae

Five-stamened Miterwort is also called Alpine Mitrewort of Five-stamen Bishop’s Cap. The former Latin name for this flower was Mitella pentandra.

Plant Description: Five-stamened Miterwort has one or more 6 to 14 inch leafless stems with 6 to 25 flowers along the top half. The stems stand up above a clump of 1 to 2 inch basal leaves with long petioles, heart-shaped, 5 to 9-lobed, toothed, and with stiff erect hairs.

Flower Description: The flowers are 1/3 inch across. They are like greenish-yellow saucers with 5 rounded lobes that turn back at the edges and 5 TV-antenna-like petals that are very narrow and have 5 to 9 thread-like appendages branching off horizontally. The 5 stamen are directly in front of the petals. When it goes to seed, the tiny black seeds sit in an open shallow cup.

Ecology: Five-stamened Miterwort grows in moist open woods and stream banks at middle to subalpine elevations.

Notes:

• Only this Miterwort is called “Five-stamened” although there are at least 5 other species of Mitrewort with five stamens. Five-stamened Miterwort does not occur at alpine elevations here, despite its other common name, Alpine Mitrewort.
• The genus of Five-stamened Miterwort has recently been changed from Mitella to Pectiantia.. See the note below the gallery on the Saxifrage Family page and the “APG Changes” page for more information.