GRASS OF PARNASSUS
Parnassia Palustris
Grass-of-Parnassus Family [Parnassiaceae] 
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Grass-of-Parnassus Family [Parnassiaceae]
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| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| A colossus of Parnassus |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| Single flowers atop mostly leafless square stalks, which may sometimes be twisted or contorted.. |
| 16th Aug 2003, Cumbria | Photo: © Fred Johnstone |
| 16th Aug 2003, Cumbria | Photo: © Fred Johnstone |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| The stems are concavely square. Five green pointed sepals support the flower. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| Five white petals. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| The petals have many deep greenish grooves or veins. The very central bulge is surrounded by five cream-coloured three-facetted scales, which are themselves surrounded by five sets of yellowish-green coloured sterile stamens which split up into about a dozen stalk-like filaments, each stalk ending in a shiny blob: the false nectarines. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| The false nectarines attract pollinators. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| There are ten stamens, but only five anthers; the other five are melliferous at the bottomand crowned by as many as seventeen yellow globular glands (the 'nectarines') which resemble drops of honey, but are in fact dry. It is possible they serve to attract flies, since in the sun (only), the flower smells sweet-scented. There are four stigmas (the large cream coloured bodies). |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| 25th Sept 2009, Marshland, Great Burney, Grizebeck, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
| The deeply folded petals. The white stamens visible are without anthers. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| The fivesets of nectarines are interspersed with five longer stamens once bearing anthers.. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| The central seed head begins to form surrounded by the false nectarines. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| Seed head shedding petals. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| The membranous seed head many-seeded, the seeds being minute, weighing about 30µgram, which allows the seeds to be blown out of the capsule by the wind. Nectarines still present around it. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| The leaves are Ace of Spades shaped. The basal leaves are on long stalks. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| A single stemless leaf clasps the stem less than a quarter-way up. |
| 9th Sept 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Southport, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
| The spent flower gone to fruit. The minute seeds within probably long since dispersed by the wind from vortexes generated at the opening. |
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Some similarities to: Wood-Sorrel Uniquely identifiable characteristics. A 5-petalled very low, buttercup-like (but white) flower growing low but upright almost hidden by grass. Grass of Parnassus is very much a plant of northern Britain rather than southern. No relation to : Grass Apparently, the above photographs taken on the Sefton Coast are a coastal compact form, var. condensata (which the BSBI website does not mention). This is possibly an example of cytopolyploidy, a variation in the chromosome numbers in Grass of Parnassus varieties. It grows on peaty soil, and here on the Sefton Coast is at the bottom of an old slack which must regularly become wet with lying water in winter. It smells sweet only when the sun is shining. ANY TEXT GOES HERE |
 Parnassia |
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Grass-of-Parnassus Family [Parnassiaceae]
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