Common Name: GRASS-OF-PARNASSUS FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb from caudex or rhizome [annual], generally glabrous, often with +- red marks on leaves, flowers when dry. Stem: scape with generally 1 leaf-like bract [scape 0]. Leaf: simple, basal [cauline], alternate [subopposite], generally petioled, often with +- red marks when dry; veins +- palmate. Inflorescence: 1-flowered [cyme]. Flower: generally bisexual, +- radial; hypanthium minute, free from ovary; calyx lobes generally 5; petals generally 5 [0], free, generally white; stamens generally 5, opposite sepals; staminodes generally 5, alternate stamens, lobes generally present, thread-like to oblong, gland-tipped; pistil 1, ovary superior, chamber +- 1, placentas 4 [3], axile below, parietal above, styles very short, stigmas [3]4. Fruit: [3]4-valved capsule. Seed: many, winged, netted.
Genera In Family: 2 genera, +- 70 species: northern temperate, low arctic, alpine, temp South America (Lepuropetalon, Parnassia). Note: Formerly included in Saxifragaceae.
eFlora Treatment Author: Peter W. Ball
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: GRASS-OF-PARNASSUS
Leaf: basal, blade ovate to reniform, entire, base tapered to cordate. Flower: petals white, with yellow, green or gray-brown lines.
Etymology: (Mount Parnassus, Greece)
Unabridged Reference: R.B. Phillips 1980, Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ of California, Berkeley

Leaf: 3--18 cm; blade 1--6 cm, round-ovate, base tapered to weakly cordate. Inflorescence: 17--43 cm; bract above scape middle, ovate, base cordate, clasping. Flower: calyx lobes 3--7 mm, elliptic, entire to minute-dentate, reflexed in fruit; petals 8--15 mm, ovate to +- elliptic, fringed basally; staminodes 3--6 mm, lobes < 15, +- equal, thread-like to linear, tips spheric; anthers 1.5--2.2 mm. Fruit: 5--13 mm.