Pyramidal saxifrage

The “lady of the mountains” hangs in white cascades of flowers from the cliffs above the fjords – in 1935 botanists chose it as Norway’s national flower.

The pyramidal saxifrage is a perennial forming large, flat rosettes of fleshy, spoon-shaped leaves edged with a white lime crust secreted by special glands. After several years of growth the rosette sends out a magnificent, arching inflorescence up to 60 cm long, made up of hundreds of tiny white flowers, and then dies, leaving offset rosettes behind. It grows in crevices in vertical rock faces and on rock ledges, often near waterfalls. In Europe it occurs mainly in Norway, and elsewhere sparsely in the Alps, the Pyrenees and Iceland.

Significance in the country

At the International Botanical Congress in Amsterdam in 1935, Norwegian botanists named the bergfrue as the national flower, because Norway is the species’ main area of distribution. Its white cascades on the cliffs above the fjords are one of the most typical sights of the Norwegian summer.

Where it grows

On cliffs and rock faces in Western and Southern Norway – most abundant in the fjord country of Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane and Møre og Romsdal (where it is the county flower), and also in the valleys of Telemark, Setesdal and Trøndelag.

More: Wikipedia (en)