Saxifraga, you're so sexy...

Saxifraga species from Svalbard

The genus Saxifraga contains a wide variety of species. Many of these are found on Svalbard, 14 species counted from Rønning's 'Flora of Svalbard'.


Saxifraga oppositifolia is one of the species that I have come across most often. The species name "oppositifolia" is describing the leaves - small, stiff leaves that lie opposite one another. When you look down at a shoot, it will look like a square if the leaves are densely packed.  

It is one of the earliest flowering species (have seen it flowering in Endalen, with intense, purple-pink flowers at the end of May). In Norwegian, it is Rødsildre, or Purple Saxifrage. It is widespread throughout Svalbard. It has two growth forms, creeping and tufted. It has been suggested that these growth forms reflect different environments (creeping on ridges, tufted in less exposed places), but no obvious pattern has been identified.

Purple, tufted

White, tufted

S. oppositifolia also has two main flower colours, making it colour polymorphic. These colours are a dark pink to purple, or a very pale pink to white. I have observed large, iridescent flies (Calliphoridae) visiting S. oppositifolia flowers, but they did not seem to be choosing one colour over another.






In 2011, I took part in the International Polar Year Field School (held in Svalbard, see link: IPY Field School Information ). I guided a group of students in investigating heating and size in S. oppositifolia (it was supposed to be Papaver dahlianum, the Svalbard Poppy, however I was unaware that it does not grow on the calcareous soils found near Nordenskjoldbreen in Billefjorden). Although they found no significant effects of heating (Poster entitled "Sexyfraga" - Does size matter to heat things up?"), it was an interesting weekend looking at many different S. oppositifolia plants.