SAXIFRAGACEAE 



SAXIFRAGE FAMILY 



ROUGH ALUM ROOT 



Hetichera /lispida Pursh 



The Saxifrage family is of considerable economic 

 importance in that it furnishes the fruits of Currants and 

 Gooseberries as well as a number of ornamental shrubs. 



The Rough Alum 

 Root is an herbaceous 

 plant and does not bear 

 edible fruits. It is found 

 on dry barren knolls or 

 dry open wooded areas 

 from Virginia to western 

 Ontario and Kansas, 

 Idaho and Saskatche- 

 wan. It will not likely 

 be found in the southern 

 end of Illinois but is 

 fairly common in cen- 

 tral and especially the 

 northern part. 



The plant is perennial by an underground 

 stem. The upright stem is 2-4 feet tall and 

 rough with rather stiff hairs. There are 

 several geraniumlike leaves, usually basal, on 

 long, slender, hairy petioles. 



The flowers bloom in May and June. They 

 have a greenish tubular calyx which is 5-lobed 

 and very much i -sided, and 5 petals which are small and project 

 scarcely beyond the calyx lobes. The 5 stamens usually do not 

 extend beyond the calyx. The pistil, with 2 slender styles, ripens 

 into a 2-beaked capsule that opens between the beaks. 



The genus Saxifraga of this family is largely and widely repre- 

 sented in Illinois by the Swamp Saxifrage, Saxifraga pcnnsylvanica 

 L., and may be distinguished from the Alum Roots or genus 

 Heuchera by the fact that its members have white flowers and 

 10 stamens instead of 5, and by its pinnately veined leaves. Forbes 

 Saxifrage, Saxifraga Forhesii Vasey, is included in Britton ^^' 

 Brown with the Swamp Saxifrage, but not so in Gray's Manual, 

 and it may be that the peculiar rock structure and constitution of 

 its habitat, the cliffs of Ciiant City state park at Makanda, ac- 

 counts for suflicient tlivergence in leaves, stamens and follicles to 

 make it a separate species. 



139 



