Unknown flower and leaf rosettes...

JennyS · #1 (**permalink**) 08-12-2007, 05:08 PM

Can anyone give me any clues to what this flower and the leaf rosettes at the right of the photo might be?

Thunderbird+ · #2 (**permalink**) 08-12-2007, 06:18 PM

Hi, It looks like 'Hairy Stonecrop'

JennyS · #3 (**permalink**) 09-12-2007, 10:38 AM

Hi and thanks for the suggestion - but I checked with the Sedum society and its definitely not a Sedum or any member of Crassulaceae..... the search continues!

Tiggrx · #4 (**permalink**) 09-12-2007, 05:35 PM

Can't work out what the pink flower is but the leaf rosettes look like Erophila verna (Whitlowgrass)

ladyhawk · #5 (**permalink**) 09-12-2007, 06:44 PM

where about did you see it, could be of the saxrifrage family

JennyS · #6 (**permalink**) 09-12-2007, 08:41 PM

Hi, it was photographed in the Burren, Co.Clare, Eire but there is a very strong and embarrassing possibility that the flower is nothing to do with the leaf rosettes......

I don't think the rosettes are Whitlowgrass, Erophila verna (though I could very easily be wrong) - this photo shows Whitlowgrass and some smaller rosettes beside it (bottom right). The unidentified ones are in the top half of the photo, next to the suspect flower, and seem different.......

ceterach · #7 (**permalink**) 09-12-2007, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JennyS

Hi, it was photographed in the Burren, Co.Clare, Eire but there is a very strong and embarrassing possibility that the flower is nothing to do with the leaf rosettes......

Hi Jenny

The flower looks a bit like Purple Saxifrage S.oppositifolia which often has an odd flower late in the year, does that grow on the Burren limestone? The rosettes certainly aren't Purple Saxifrage and they have got me beat at the moment

All the best

ceterach · #8 (**permalink**) 09-12-2007, 08:57 PM

Did a Google and yes it does.

JennyS · #9 (**permalink**) 09-12-2007, 09:03 PM

Purple Saxifrage was what I first hoped, but there are no records of it for the Burren (Co. Galway yes, but thats further north).
I emailed someone who knows that area and he suggested possibly Rue-leaved Saxifrage, Saxifraga tridactylites for the leaf rosettes, and as to the flower -

"The pink flower is a mystery - nothing that I know which looks like that should be on the beach at Fanore"

So sadly I'm not much the wiser.

Added 10.14 - yes, thanks John, I've just found a reference to it in the Burren, even though the BSBI maps don't show it....

ceterach · #10 (**permalink**) 09-12-2007, 09:24 PM

Jenny

Certainly, I can think of no other species with a flower like that but I can't see any S.oppositifolia leaves in your picture.

For the rosette, it would be totally unlike any S.tridactylites I have ever seen!

However, when you have ruled out the possible go looking for the impossible!

All the best