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What plant is this Connemara native?

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  • 10-06-2013 9:15pm
    #1
    Colonialboy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,533 ✭✭✭


    Anyone know what this plant is, found on a hill in Connemara?


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    #2
    lottpaul
    Registered Users Posts: 1,164 ✭✭✭lottpaul


    Saxifragia urbium (London Pride) - lovely little plant - grows wild on many north facing banks here in W Kerry.


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    #3
    tara m
    Registered Users Posts: 76 ✭✭tara m


    Hi - I think it is St Patrick's-cabbage,

    Scientific Name: Saxifraga spathularis
    Irish Name: Cabáiste mhadra rua

    Tara :-)


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    #4
    KnapperHandy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 94 ✭✭KnapperHandy


    Hi Colonialboy,

    It's a lovely looking little plant!It's definitely a member of the saxifrage family(saxifragaceae).Looking at the height of it(it looks quite short),I think it's 'Saxifraga stellaris',commonly known as the 'Starry Saxifrage',which is found commonly in damp mountain habitats.You find cultivated forms of these little plants in gardens throughout the country.

    Hope this helps!

    All the best.


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    #5
    KnapperHandy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 94 ✭✭KnapperHandy


    You've so far got three possible candidates for this little plant,and to be honest,I think Tara m. has hit the nail on the head!I think she's right,it does look like Saxifraga spathularis.

    Well done Tara!


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    #6
    lottpaul
    Registered Users Posts: 1,164 ✭✭✭lottpaul


    KnapperHandy wrote: »
    You've so far got three possible candidates for this little plant,and to be honest,I think Tara m. has hit the nail on the head!I think she's right,it does look like Saxifraga spathularis.

    Well done Tara!

    +1 -- agree -- can't wait to tell all of the neighbours that what we have all been calling London Pride isn't London Pride at all! :)

    Cabáiste Mhadra Rua is a much nicer name anyway! :D


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    #7
    KnapperHandy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 94 ✭✭KnapperHandy


    I must also agree,'Cabáiste Mhadra Rua' sounds a lot nicer!Interesting though that it is called 'St.Patrick's Cabbage' and yet a translation of its Irish name is the 'Fox Cabbage'.Strange!


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    #8
    KnapperHandy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 94 ✭✭KnapperHandy


    Hi lottpaul,

    I was just curious about the saxifrage you mentioned 'London Pride',and so had a look on Wiki and this is what it tells us:The "true" London Pride is a hybrid between Saxifraga umbrosa, native to the Spanish Pyrenees, and Saxifraga spathularis (which is the plant to which the name St Patrick's Cabbage more correctly belongs, coming from western Ireland).

    So I suppose technically you and your neighbours can still call it 'London Pride'!

    All the best.


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    #9
    Colonialboy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,533 ✭✭✭Colonialboy


    Thanks everyone for the helpful and lovely replies.
    Its a beautiful plant, lovely to see in the wild, minding its own buisness , just poking its head up to take in the view on the mountainside.

    Only in Ireland could we have 3 such wonderful names coming together for the same thing, where science,meets religion meets folklore, meets myth.. I love it

    St Patrick's-cabbage,
    Scientific Name: Saxifraga spathularis
    Irish Name: Cabáiste mhadra rua


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