Sternb.
Description
Saxifraga asarifolia is a high-alpine perennial of the Himalaya, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan, with GBIF listing about 62 occurrences (the US record reflecting cultivated or herbarium material). It grows on moist, rocky alpine turf, scree margins, moraine and damp ledges in the upper subalpine to alpine belt, generally between 3500 and 5000 m. The illustrated plant was collected in West Nepal at the Kagmara-La at 4800 m in July, near the upper limit of vascular plant life, where it flowers during the brief monsoon-warmed summer amid snowmelt ground.
It is a small, mat- or cushion-forming herb with a slender branching rhizome rooting at the nodes. The leaves are mostly basal, long-petiolate, with reniform to orbicular-cordate, somewhat fleshy blades reminiscent of Asarum, hence the epithet, the margins shallowly crenate or entire and often ciliate. The flowering stems are short and few-flowered, bearing solitary or sparingly cymose flowers. Each flower has five spreading, ovate, yellow to greenish-yellow petals frequently dotted with orange, five sepals, ten stamens, and a superior to half-inferior ovary of two connate carpels. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule dehiscing to release numerous small seeds.
The species belongs within the large and taxonomically intricate genus Saxifraga, associated with the predominantly Asian sections of yellow-flowered alpine saxifrages. Its restriction to high, cold, moist microhabitats makes it a useful indicator of intact alpine ecosystems. While not currently assessed as threatened owing to remote and extensive habitat, populations are vulnerable to climate-driven upward shifts of the alpine zone and to grazing pressure on accessible pastures.
Author: Sternb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Saxifrages of the World (Webb & Gornall)