''Mitella trifida'' is a species of flowering plant in the

saxifrage family Saxifragaceae is a family of herbaceous perennial flowering plants, within the core eudicot order Saxifragales. The taxonomy of the family has been greatly revised and the scope much reduced in the era of molecular phylogenetic analysis. The fa ...

known by the common names threeparted miterwort and Pacific miterwort. It is native to western North America from

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where it grows in wet wooded habitat types. It is a

rhizomatous In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

perennial herb growing up to about 45 centimeters tall. The leaves occur around the base of the stem. They have rounded blades up to 10 centimeters wide and lobed, round-toothed edges. The erect

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

bears up to 20 flowers, usually along one side of the stem. The distinctive flower is cup-shaped with five white or violet-tinged petals which are usually, but not always, divided into three lance-shaped lobes.

External links

*
Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
trifida Flora of Alaska Flora of Western Canada Flora of the Western United States Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Saxifragaceae-stub