(stiffstem saxifrage)
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Photo of Micranthes hieraciifolia by Carl Roland
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Micranthes hieraciifolia is a herbaceous plant with a rosette of basal leaves and a single, stout flowering stalk that occurs in moist to wet areas of tundra and meadows in the mountains of Denali, where it is much more common north of the Alaska Range than to the south. Plants grow 10-50 cm tall from a caudex. The leaves are
elliptic or
oblong-
lanceolate, with the margins slightly
crenate or
entire, often with a reddish underside. The flowering stalk is stout, reddish, and finely hairy. The
inflorescence is
spike-like (occasionally slightly branched), with several to many small flowers in clusters. Both petals and
sepals are 2-3 mm long, and purplish.
Carpels are initially bright green, maturing to red, two-beaked
capsules. This species is easy to distinguish from other members of the genus
Micranthes because of its
spike-like
inflorescence and greenish-purple petals.
Micranthes hieraciifolia flowers mid-summer.
Micranthes hieraciifolia is
monoecious with bisexual flowers. The genus
Micranthes is insect-pollinated, and the fruits are dry
capsules which split to release many small seeds, dispersed by gravity, wind and water.
Micranthes hieraciifolia is a circumpolar arctic-alpine species, though with gaps in its global range. This species occurs in Greenland, Nunavut, Yukon, B.C. and southward with disjunct populations in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, as well as in the Eurasian Arctic and parts of central Asia. In Alaska this species is broadly distributed across the state's alpine areas and the on the Arctic coast, absent or rare in the Aleutians and most of Southcentral and Southeast. In Denali, the species occurs occasionally on the north side of the Alaska Range and the foothills in the northeastern corner of the park.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right, depicting recent Denali data.
This is an alpine plant found at high and moderately high elevations. The altitudinal range is 576 to 1533 m, with an average site elevation of 1120 m. It is typically found on less angled slopes (average incline of 14 degrees) and this species is slightly more common on northern aspects.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right. For more on how to interpret these figures, visit Understanding Data Presented.
Moist to wet sites in the mountains.