Tiny and exquisite

This teeny flower is so small that I can never see, with the naked eye, whether an indiividual flower still has its petals. It's hard enough to notice one of these tiny, thread-like plants as it is. It was growing in an undulating area of such deep, soft moss that's difficult to walk on and especially to kneel down on and then get up again, ha. Photographed at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park yesterday, 30 June 2013, when I went for a drive along the backroads SW of Calgary and called in at Brown-Lowery just briefly.

This native plant belongs to the Saxifrage family, Saxifragaceae. It is also called Bare-stemmed Mitrewort, Bishop's Cap, Common Mitrewort, Miterwort, and Northern Bishop's Cap. There are 5-8 tiny flowers on the upper half of the slender, flowering stems, 7-20cm high. Each exquisite flower has 5 greenish-yellow or white, snow-flake design petals, with ten stamens, 6mm (just under quarter of an inch) across. The seed capsules, 2 - 3 mm long, open widely into shallow cups containing shiny, black seeds that ripen in late-summer.

www.borealforest.org/herbs/herb24.htm

www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9183051909