Purple saxifrage: a spring-flowering gem
One of the real gems amongst our local wild flowers is purple saxifrage Saxifraga oppositifolia, but few see it in its prime. There are several reasons. It is montane and quite scarce. The Flora of Assynt (2002, p. 102) records it from ‘rocks and screes on the higher hills’, mostly above 300m, in just 12 tetrads (we have since found it in one more). Also, it flowers early, from March to May.
Chris Puddephatt asked me recently where he might find it in flower. I was able to locate in our records a reasonably accessible site, at about 230m altitude, on the west side of Bealach Leireag, facing Quinag (NC1928). He was up there on 11th April 2024 and came back with a stunning set of photographs.
There were a number of clumps, spreading out from crevices on wet, almost vertical, crags of Lewisian gneiss, their trailing stems bearing small, curiously truncated, leaves (photos 1-2). The flowers are solitary, on short stems, with five rosy-purple petals up to 10mm long, ten much darker stamens, and two styles (photos 3-4).
Purple saxifrage is a prostrate perennial of moist, base-rich, soils in rocky and stony places. It is essentially a plant of the Scottish Highlands and Islands, with a few scattered sites south of the Central Belt, on higher hills in England and Wales and along the north-west coast of Ireland (see map from Plant Atlas 2020, photo 5).
Although mainly montane, it does occur down to sea level in north-west Sutherland, from just south of Scourie round to the limestone cliffs along the east side of Loch Eriboll.
Ian M. Evans
Photos 1-4 Chris Puddephatt