Individual flowers are ¼ inch or less across, each with 5 white petals, and are grouped in a compact, round-topped head about 1 inch in diameter which forms the top of a naked stem (scape). This scape rises to a height of 8 inches, or sometimes much less, from the center of a flat circle of oblong, leathery leaves. As the blossoms age, the flower cluster becomes loose and sprangly. Grows on moist slopes in sub-alpine and montane zones. Blooms May-July.

Saxifrage is another large family of quite varied sorts. Gooseberries and mock orange come within its membership. The numerous species of alum root, Heuchera, are also included, as are many little alpine and sub-alpine plants that grow out of rock crevices in our high mountains. Purple saxifrage, Saxifraga jamesii, with quite large red-purple flowers, and dotted saxifrage, Saxifraga austromontana, with tiny white flowers covered with pale dots, are among the best. All of these seem able to thrive on only a teaspoonful of soil in a rock crack, if only there is local moisture. The structural features that bring all these plants within one family are not obvious. The leaves of many of them are similar to the leaves of a gooseberry bush, though in some this resemblance is remote, and in others entirely absent.