Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Rosales

Family: Saxifragaceae -- saxifrage

Common Name: smallflower woodland-star, prairie star, other names for the genus include fringecup, rocketstar, woodlandstar, baby face.

Species Code: LIPA5, LIPAP3

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 from slender rhizomes and bulblets borne on the roots; stems purplish above, 10-30 cm tall; glandular-pubescent throughout.

Mature height: 4-12 inches

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: basal leaves rotund to reniform, palmately cleft into 3-5 cuneate segments that are further cleft and lobed, petioles with stipular bases; cauline leaves cleft into narrow segments, subsessile.

Flowers: borne in a raceme which elongates as the plants age, 5-11 flowered; calyx 4-6 mm long, obconic, with 5 triangular lobes; petals white to pinkish, subequal, 5-10 mm long, usually 3-5 cleft.

Flower color: white

Bloom: April, May

Bloom starts on: late April

Bloom ends on: early June

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

Characteristics:
L. parviflorum 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 should have priority according to the rules of nomenclature. However, some floras chose to correct it to the neuter ending.
Tellima parviflora in Piper & Beattie 1914, L. parviflorum in Davis 1953. L. parviflora in Hitchcock & Cronquist 1973, Hitchcock et al 1996, and in St. John 1963.
Despite the fact that "parviflora" means “small flowered”, the flowers are larger than those of L. bulbifera, with which it is often sympatric.
Pollinated by bombyliid flies, solitary bees, and the moth Greya politella (Thompson and Pellmyr 1992). The females of Greya politella effect pollination while ovipositing in the flower. The resulting larva consume some of the seeds (Thompson & Pellmyr 1992, Pellmyr et al 1996).
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by bulblets borne on the roots.
n=7 (University of British Columbia 2003).
2n=14,21,28,35 (Baldwin et al 2004).
Polyploidy is present.
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a capsule.
Flowers are self incompatible (Thompson & Pellmyr 1992).
Bulblets are eaten by rodents and game birds (Craighead et al 1963).

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: mesic

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: fall

Stratification: cold moist plus cool growing conditions

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

Alternate Species: parviflorum

Propagation:
Grow from seeds or bulblets (Kruckeberg 1996).
Germinate seed in wet sand, grow in unheated greenhouse (Thompson & Pellmyr 1992).
Stratify, grow at ambient temperatures and light (Pellmyr & Thompson 1992).
Preliminary data from the Pullman Plant Materials Center suggests the seed needs extended cold moist stratification and possibly cool growing conditions.
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by bulblets borne 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 11/6/09 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, and Arthur Cronquist. 1973. Flora of the Pacific Northwest. Univ. of Washington Press. Seattle, WA.

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.

Kruckeberg, Arthur R. 1996. Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA.

Pellmyr, Olle and John N. Thompson. 1992. Multiple Occurrences of Mutualism in the Yucca Moth Lineage. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 89:2927-2929.

Pellmyr, Olle, John N. Thompson, Jonathan M. Brown, and Richard G. Harrison. 1996. Evolution of Pollination and Mutualism in the Yucca Moth Lineage. American Midland Naturalist 148:827-847.

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

Thompson, John N., and Olle Pellmyr. 1992. Mutualism with Pollinating Seed Parasites Amid Co-Pollinators: Constraints on Specialization. Ecology 73:1780-1791.

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