Bulbous Woodland-Star

Bulbous woodland-starLithophragma glabrum is one of the two relatively common Wasatch species of Lithophragma, a Saxifrage family genus with a Greek name which means, strangely enough, exactly the same what Saxifraga is in Latin: a stone-breaker. The petals of L. glabrum range from off-white to pink in color, and are deeply cut into 5 pointy lobes; the other local woodland-star, a white-flowered L. parviflorum, has three-lobed petals. But even more telling are the bulbous red swellings below the flowerheads of L. glabrum, which gave this species its name. 6/3/2008