Authors: L.  

Botanical Description

formed of long, slender leafy shoots. Leaves entire and linear-lanceolate or three-lobed, the basal ones three to seven lobed. Summer-dormant resting buds are sometimes present in the lower leaf axils. Flowering stems 10-3 0cm high, slender, bearing three to seven starry white flowers, petals 7-10mm long. North-western Europe, including Great Britain where it is known as Dovedale Moss. A good, easily grown evergreen rock plant though now largely superseded by the various mossy hybrids. S.h. 'Kingii' (syn. var. gemmifera) is an attractively compact form the foliage of which takes on reddish tints in the autumn. 'Whitlavei' has more and larger flowers.