Spreading by rhizomes, this plant colonizes stream sides and springs with a dense cover of rounded basal leaves with distinct, even, coarse teeth. Note the tall, slender, branching flower stem is leafless with open clusters of small white flowers. The petals have green to yellow basal spots, and the club-shaped stamens are tipped with showy reddish-brown anthers.

FLOWER: June–September. Flower stems leafless, branching, 8–24 inches tall (20–65 cm), with 10–30 flowers in an open, elongated cluster; 5 rounded white petals with green to yellow basal spots; petals narrow at the base into a claw; 10 white flattened, club-shaped stamens, some longer than the petals; filaments reddish-brown; the ovary has two protruding, pointed, cone-shaped lobes.

LEAVES: Basal, on stems (petioles) to 12 inches long (30 cm); blades rounded, to 3 inches wide (75 mm); margins lined with even, coarse teeth.

HABITAT: Moist soils; stream banks, springs, seeps, wet meadows; pine-Douglas fir, spruce-fir-aspen forests.

ELEVATION: 8,200–11,200 feet.

RANGE: All Rocky Mountain states and westward.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The leafless flower stalk; open, elongated flower cluster; and rounded leaves with coarse teeth help distinguish this species. As a rule of thumb, Micranties species have leafless flower stalks, and Saxifraga species have stalks with leaves.

NM COUNTIES: Mountains of northern and western NM in high-elevation, moist habitats: Catron, Colfax, Grant, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos.