Minuartia Laricifolia

This pretty and rarely-seen high alpine plant makes small cushions of needle-shaped leaves with white, starry flowers on thin delicate stems. It thrives in the harshest of conditions often on almost bare rocky outcrops and serpentine soils, which harbour a distinct and unique flora rich in endemics. Minuartia laricifolia has two ecologically distinct subspecies with disjunct distributions. Subsp. laricifolia on siliceous rocks in the western Alps and eastern Pyrenees, and subsp. ophiolitica on serpentine in the northern Apennines. Few seeds collected.