Shady places in the mountains may be home to this Spring-blooming plant, Early Saxifrage, Saxifraga virginiensis.
Well, that’s where we’ve seen it blooming, but it can be found in rocky fields, on rocky outcrops, and stream banks.
Look in dry rocky places during April to June for the white fragrant blossoms. They’re small flowers only a quarter-inch across, but easily seen because they occur in clusters. Usually, several plants will be blooming together so that helps them to be seen.
Peterson’s Field Guide to Wildflowers
native to most of the Eastern United States from Minnesota and New Brunswick, Canada to the south and the USDA plants data base shows it to be present in most of Eastern North America, except the most eastern and most southern parts of the continent, meaning Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Florida.
This perennial plant is a small herb reaching about a foot tall at the most. Oval-shaped leaves with wavy edges form a basal rosette.
In the center of the rosette a stalk rises up a few inches and branches out into clusters of small white flowers. Flowers are five-petaled and have many yellow stamens. On larger plants there may be more than one flower stalk present.
