Saxifrage Family – Saxifragaceae

Actual flower size: 1/3 inch across

Plant Description: Gooseberry-leaved Alumroot has a flowering stem that is 6 to 32 inch tall, hairy, leafless, with white, cup-shaped flowers, on long petioles, growing along the top half. This stem emerges from a clump of long-petioled basal leaves, roundly heart-shaped with 5 to 7 shallow lobes. The lobes sometimes overlap and have coarse teeth on each lobe.

Flower Description: The flowers are 1/3 inches across. The greenish-white calyx is erect, with one side longer than the other. The white, tubular, bell-shaped flowers have 5 tiny white, narrow petals, usually much shorter than and hidden by the oval calyx lobes. The 5 stamen are also hidden inside.

Ecology: Gooseberry-leaved Alumroot may be found on grassy hillsides or on rocky slopes in the lowlands and in talus or rocky ridges in the mountains, mainly in the transition zone between Western and Eastern Cascades and in the Columbia River Gorge.