Syn.: Saxifraga boryi Boiss. et Heldr., Saxifraga carpathica N. Terracc., nom. illeg., Saxifraga coriophylla Griseb., Saxifraga pseudocaesia Rochel
Family: Saxifragaceae Juss.
Distribution: It occurs on the Balkans (former Jugoslavia, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria), in the southern Carpathians and in the central and southern Apennines.
Ecology: Crevices of carbonate rocks in altitudes between 1100 and 2800 m. Flowering from mid-May to July.
Description: A perennial, forming loose to dense, fairly rigid cushions of culumnar or rosette-like flowering and non-flowering shoots. Basal leaves rigid and more or less lime encrusted, flat or slightly keeled, obtuse but sometimes with very short mucro, glabrous, ciliate in the lower half, with smooth scarious margins in the upper half, (2–)4–7(–12) × 2–4(–5) mm, spathulate, obovate or oblong. Flowering stems up to 10 cm, suberect, densely glandular-pubescent. Inflorescence usually a corymbose cyme with 2–9(–17) flowers. Calyx (4–)6–8(–9) mm, glandular–pubescent, greenish. Sepals triangular to narrowly triangular, obtuse or acute. Petals (7–)10–15 mm long, spathulate to oblong-spathulate, white or pale pink Beaks of capsule erect or suberect, well exserted from the calyx.
Possible confussions: In the area of S. marginata we can meet these similar species: Saxifraga scardica Griseb. with obviously keeled leaves and acute leaf apex; S. diapensioides Bellardi with leaves only up to 1.5 mm, widest in the half (extremly narrow-leaved plants of S. marginata var. coriophylla are only hardly distinguished from this species); S. spruneri Boiss. with leaves glandular-pubescent on abaxial side.
These images were taken in Albania, Prokletije, Maja e Radohines and Shkëlzen (June 25, 2010; June 27, 2011; July 4, 2011).
