Authors: L.  

Botanical Description

Forms clumps of lax rosettes of rounded, coarsely toothed, usually hairy leaves up to 5cm across, on long, slender petioles. Flowering stems stout, 20-60cm tall, rarely more, bearing rather narrow panicles of starry, white flowers, petals 6-llm m long usually spotted with yellow at the base and with red higher up. Occurs widely in damp and shady places in or near the mountains of central and southern Europe. Includes the former S. heucherifolia from the Carpathians and Greece which has slightly larger flowers and a more variable leaf outline. This is now var. heucherifolia. Fairly easy to grow in the garden but not very striking. The former S. chrysosplenifolia has now been reduced to a subspecies of S. rotundifolia. The differences are slight and of no great horticultural significance.

a, S. bryoides; b, S. cuneifolia; c, S. paniculata; d, S. rotundifolia; e, S. sibirica;