Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Rosales

Family: Saxifragaceae -- saxifrage

Common Name: bulbous or bulbiferous prairie-star, slender prairie-star, other names for the genus include fringecup, rocketstar, woodlandstar, baby face.

Species Code: LIGL2, LIBU2

Origin: Native to dry to moist, open to semi-shaded sites from sagebrush-steppe to open pine and fir forests of western North America from southern British to California and east to Colorado and Montana.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial, erect, 5-25 cm tall, often purplish glandular puberulent, especially upward.

Mature height: 2-10 inches

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: basal leaves petiolate, palmately divided into 3-5 cuneate to obovate segments, each segment further divided into 3 lobes; cauline leaves similar, narrower, usually 2, subsessile, often with hirsute bulblets borne in the axils.

Flowers: showy, borne in terminal racemes; calyx 2.5-4 mm long, campanulate to cup-shaped, lobes 5, triangular; petals with 3-5 linear lobes, white to pinkish, ovate, 3-8 mm long.

Flower color: white

Bloom: April, May

Bloom starts on: early April

Bloom ends on: early May

Fruit: capsule; seeds ellipsoid, brown, 0.5 mm long.

Characteristics:
Currently treated as part of L. glabrum or sometimes as a variety or subspecies thereof.
L. bulbiferum is synonymous. Apparently "phragma", meaning wall, fence, or partition, is of neuter gender and requires the ending "um" rather than the feminine ending "a". The "a" ending was chosen by the original author and has priority according to the rules of nomenclature. However, some floras chose to correct it to the neuter ending.
Tellima tenella in Piper & Beattie 1914, L. bulbiferum in Davis 1953, L. glabra in St. John 1963.
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by bulblets borne both in the leaf axils and on the roots.
x=7 (University of British Columbia 2003).
2n=14, 28 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993, Baldwin et al 2004).
Flowers are perfect.
Both diploids and tetraploids are known.
Fruit is a capsule.
Probably pollinated by insects.
Since the bulblets of L. parviflora are eaten by rodents and game birds (Craighead et al 1963), it is likely that they also consume the bulblets of L. bulbifera.

Sun requirement: full to partial sun

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: fall

Stratification: cold moist

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: 3-4 years

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: medium

Seed insect problem: yes

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: very small

Seed harvest date: early June

Seed comments: does not always produce flowers, very small plants are difficult to locate when in fruit

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native upland perennial forb

Propagation:
Seed needs extended cold moist stratification and possibly cool growing conditions.
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by bulblets borne both in the leaf axils and on the roots.

Notes: Lithophragma bulbifera and Lithophragma parviflora both have charming white flowers on tiny plants that bloom early in the spring, then disappear. Mark the position of the plants so you don’t hoe or dig them up late in the season. Seed needs long stratification and cool growing conditions. In the wild, most plants remain vegetative in any given year, only a few bloom. Might bloom more often in a garden. Can also be grown from bulblets produced on the roots of both species and also at the base of the petiole in L. bulbifera. Should be good rock garden subjects. Common names include prairie-star, fringecup, rocketstar, woodlandstar, baby face (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 10/30/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium