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Saxifraga
Also called Strawberry begonia, Saxifrages, Rockfoils, Rockfoil
Saxifraga is a large genus of about 470 small perennial herbs, mostly from cold, mountainous regions of the Northern Hemisphere, that form low rosettes or cushions. Most grown plants are cushion or rock garden types that need good drainage and cool conditions.
Saxifraga is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 473 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils. The Latin word saxifraga means literally "stone-breaker", from Latin saxum ("rock" or "stone") + frangere ("to break"). It is usually thought to indicate a medicinal use for treatment of urinary calculi (known as kidney or bladder stones), rather than breaking rocks apart.
Numerous species and cultivars of saxifrage are cultivated as ornamental garden plants, valued particularly as groundcover or as cushion plants in rock gardens and alpine gardens. Many require alkaline or neutral soil to thrive.
S. × urbium (London pride), a hybrid between Pyrenean saxifrage (S. umbrosa) and St. Patrick's cabbage (S. spathularis), is commonly grown as an ornamental plant. Another horticultural hybrid is Robertsoniana saxifrage (S. × geum), derived from kidney saxifrage (S. hirsuta) and Pyrenean saxifrage. Some wild species are also used in gardening. Cambridge University Botanic Garden hosts the United Kingdom's national collection of saxifrages.
Saxifrages are typical inhabitants of Arctic–alpine ecosystems, and are hardly ever found outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere; most members of this genus are found in subarctic climates. A good number of species grow in glacial habitats, such as S. biflora which can be found some 4,000 m (13,000 ft) above sea level in the Alps, or the East Greenland saxifrage (S. nathorstii). The genus is also abundant in the Eastern and Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows. Though the archetypal saxifrage is a small plant huddling between rocks high up on a mountain, many species do not occur in such a habitat and are larger (though still rather delicate) plants found on wet meadows.
The leaves of some saxifrage species, such as creeping saxifrage (S. stolonifera) and S. pensylvanica, are edible. The former is a food in Korea and Japan. The flowers of purple saxifrage (S. oppositifolia) are eaten in Nunavut, Canada and the leaves and stems brewed as a tea.
Saxifraga burseriana · Thick Leaved Saxifrage · Saxifraga candelabrum · Saxifraga cochlearis · Saxifraga cotyledon · Lesser Londonpride · Fortune's Saxifrage · Mossy Saxifrage · Kabschia Saxifrage · Purple mountain saxifrage · Livelong Saxifrage · Creeping saxifrage
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Saxifraga by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
