''Saxifraga paradoxa'', commonly known as the fragile saxifrage,
is a
perennial
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...
plant species in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Saxifragaceae
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 f ...
,
which occurs as a tertiary
relict
A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.
Biology
A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas.
Geology and geomorphology
In geology, a r ...
and
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
''Saxifraga'' species
in the
South-Eastern Alps
The Southern Limestone Alps ( it, Alpi Sud-orientali, german: Südliche Kalkalpen), also called the Southern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps south of the Central Eastern Alps mainly located in northern Italy and the adjacen ...
. Count
Kaspar Maria von Sternberg
Count Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (also: ''Caspar Maria'', ''Count Sternberg'', german: Kaspar Maria Graf Sternberg, cs, hrabě Kašpar Maria Šternberk), 1761, Prague – 1838, Březina (Rokycany District), Březina Castle), was a Bohemian Theolo ...
described this species in his work ''Revisio Saxifragarum iconibus'' of 1810.
Description
This perennial species is a
deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
to
semi-deciduous
Semi-deciduous or semi-evergreen is a botanical term which refers to plants that lose their foliage for a very short period, when old leaves fall off and new foliage growth is starting. This phenomenon occurs in tropical and sub-tropical woody spec ...
low-growing plant that can reach up to in height and can spread around for approximately
with its ascending to decumbent stems.
Its shining and small leaves are mid- to bright green, in shape usually
reniform
Reniform is an adjective meaning "kidney-shaped" and may specifically refer to:
* Reniform leaf
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single ...
(kidney-like) and slightly lobed.
''Saxifraga paradoxa'' characteristic are also small pale green coloured flowers that have linearly-shaped
petal
Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...
s, red anthers and are arranged into an axillary
cyme.
The plant's flowering period is between May and August.
Distribution and conservation
This ''Saxifraga'' species native range are South-Eastern Alps, with most of its populations inhabiting
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
and
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
.
In Austria ''Saxifraga paradoxa'' occurs in
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
and
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
,
while in Slovenia its growing area includes valleys of rivers
Hudinja and
Lobnica (tributary of
) near
Pohorje
Pohorje (), also known as the Pohorje Massif or the Pohorje Mountains (german: Bachergebirge, ''Bacherngebirge'' or often simply ''Bachern''), is a mostly wooded, medium-high mountain range south of the Drava River in northeastern Slovenia. Acco ...
, as well as
Kozjak mountains
The Kozjak Mountains ( sl, Kozjak) or Possruck Mountains (german: Poßruck) is a mountain chain in the Lavanttal or Noric Alps running north of the Drava along the border between the Austrian state of Styria and Slovenia. Its highest peak, the ...
and Košenjak.
Its habitat usually consists of damp and shaded rocky screes with non-
calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...
basis, mostly containing
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
and
gneiss
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...
.
After this species Slovakian botanist
Ladislav Mucina named plant community ''Saxifragetum paradoxae'', with ''Saxifraga paradoxa'' being its characteristic species.
''Saxifraga paradoxa'' has not yet been evaluated for the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
.
Taxonomy
So-called European purple saxifrages (members of ''Saxifraga's'' section ''Porphyrion'' and subsection ''Oppositifoliae'') are a big group of numerous taxa with uncertain taxonomic position, widely distributed in mountain ranges of central and southern Europe. Researchers studied their evolutionary relationship with a use of
amplified fragment length polymorphism
AFLP-PCR or just AFLP is a PCR-based tool used in genetics research, DNA fingerprinting, and in the practice of genetic engineering. Developed in the early 1990s by KeyGene, AFLP uses restriction enzymes to digest genomic DNA, followed by ligati ...
(AFLP) fingerprinting and ''Saxifraga paradoxa'' was shown not to be genetically divergent taxon. Recent research treats ''Saxifraga paradoxa'' as a member of ''Saxifraga's'' section ''Saxifraga'' and subsection ''Arachnoideae.''
References
External links
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15608615
paradoxa
Flora of Europe
Flora of the Alps