Saxifragaceae

Saxifragaceae, the saxifrage family of flowering plants (order Rosales), comprising 36 genera and about 600 species of mostly perennial herbaceous plants. The members are cosmopolitan in distribution but native primarily to northern cold and temperate regions. Members of the family have leaves that characteristically alternate along the stem and are sometimes deeply lobed or form rosettes. The flowers possess both male and female parts and four or five sepals and petals; they are generally borne in branched clusters and range in colour from greenish to white or yellow and from pink or red to purple. The fruit is a capsule with many seeds.

coral bells

Most of the cultivated species in the family belong to the saxifrage, or rockfoil, genus (Saxifraga). Well-known members of the family that are often planted in rock gardens or as border ornamentals include coral bells or alum root (genus Heuchera), Astilbe, bishop’s cap, or mitrewort (Mitella), woodland stars (Lithophragma), Indian rhubarb (Darmera peltata), foamflower, or false mitrewort (Tiarella), and pickaback plant (Tolmiea menziesii).

Leaves of Astilbe philippinensis are used in northern Luzon, Philippines, for smoking. The rhizomes of Chinese bergenia (Bergenia purpurascens) are used in Chinese medicine to stop bleeding and to serve as a tonic. Heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) of North America is used in folk medicine as a diuretic and tonic. Creeping saxifrage (Saxifraga stolonifera), native to China and Japan, is used in Java, Vietnam, and various parts of China for earaches and other ear problems. It is also employed in China for attacks of cholera and to treat hemorrhoids.

starry saxifrage

The family Saxifragaceae illustrates the entire range of adaptation to different moisture conditions. Saxifraga nutans is a true aquatic plant. Marsh saxifrage (Micranthes pensylvanica) grows in bogs, and lettuceleaf saxifrage (M. micranthidifolia) grows in cold mountain streams and on wet rocks. Other species are more or less adapted to dry conditions, among them rueleaf saxifrage (S. tridactylites), which stores moisture in small bulblike bodies on the stem (bulbils). Similarly, S. trifurcata has a strongly cuticularized epidermis, S. globulifera produces membranous bud scales and hairy stipules, and rough saxifrage (S. aspera) stores moisture in its fleshy, heavily cuticularized, long-persistent leaves; all are examples of adaptations to dry habitats. In some, leaf rosettes are produced. The bases of the lower leaves in the rosettes are only weakly cuticularized, so that dew accumulating there may be absorbed by the leaves in sufficient quantity to enable the flowering shoot to develop.

Species of the genus Saxifraga are known for their tenacious ability to grow and thrive on exposed rocky crags and in fissures of rocks. The name Saxifraga literally means “rock breaker.” Thus, saxifrages grow high in Alpine regions of the mountains of Europe, in places that are covered with snow and ice for long periods of the year. The plants have tough wiry root systems and deeply penetrating taproots. In the same harsh environments, some saxifrages develop as cushion plants, involving a considerable reduction in leaf surface and a foreshortened shoot.

Most Saxifragaceae species, however, grow in moist shaded woodlands. Among these are species of Saxifraga, Astilbe, Rodgersia, Astilboides, Peltiphyllum, Micranthes, and Boykinia.