The saxifrage of Argentera

The Argentera saxifrage (Saxifraga florulenta) is a herbaceous species already present on the mountains of the Argentera-Mercantour group before the ice ages. It lives in the fissures of siliceous rocks above 1600 meters of altitude. One of its most interesting characteristics is its very slow development: every year it produces very few leaves, it blooms after an interminable vegetative phase producing a panicle full of a hundred pinkish-white flowers and then dies, not before having dispersed thousands of tiny seeds.