GRASS-OF-PARNASSUS
Parnassia palustris
Grass-of-Parnassus Family [Parnassiaceae] 
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Grass-of-Parnassus Family [Parnassiaceae]
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status
flower
flower
flower
morph
petals
type
bowl
stem
stem
smell
honey
in sunsex
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| A colossus of Parnassus growing in a damp patch. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Single flowers atop mostly leafless square stalks, which may sometimes be twisted or contorted. The stems have but one ovate to cordate sessile (stalkless) leaf each. The other leaves are all basal leaves. |
| 8th July 2014, dune slacks, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Three of a kind. The five out-stretched white 'arms' within are 5 of the 10 stamens, but these 5 have mostly already lost their anthers. |
| 8th July 2014, dune slacks, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Flower bud opening. |
| 8th July 2014, dune slacks, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Getting larger. Flower stalks are fluted and sometimes square. |
| 16th Aug 2003, Cumbria | Photo: © Fred Johnstone |
| Globular flower at first. |
| 16th Aug 2003, Cumbria | Photo: © Fred Johnstone |
A peek at the innards. The sepals have tiny brown hydathodesat their tips to release excess water, since living in dampish places, it may end up drinking too much. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The stems are concavely square. Five green pointed sepals support the flower. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Five white petals. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The petals have many deep greenish grooves or veins. The very central bulge (the ovary) is surrounded by five cream-coloured anthers now devoid of pollen, 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, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The false nectarines attract pollinators. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| There are ten stamens, but only five anthers; the other five are melliferous at the bottom and crowned by as many as seventeen yellow globular glands (the false '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. |
| 8th July 2014, dune slacks, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The topmost 'arm' is a stamen with an anther covered in pollen, the other four have either lost their pollen or are stretching off-screen having lost the anther entirely. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| There are about 12 spherical yellow false-nectarines (born on meliferous anthers) nestled just above each of 5 petals. The ovary (pink/white in this example) has 5 double-lobed styles atop. |
| 23rd July 2015, Birkdale dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The globular false-nectarines up close. |
| 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, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The five sets of nectarines are interspersed with five longer stamens which once bore anthers. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The central seed head begins to form surrounded by the false nectarines. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Seed head shedding petals. False nectarines and stamens without anthers still present. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | 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. |
| 10th Oct 2018, Dune Heath, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Some sepals have dropped off revealing the remains of the false nectarines. |
| 10th Oct 2018, Dune Heath, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Your Author split this immature seed head curious as to what he would find within it. It is to be assumed that these are destined to become the seeds(?). The seeds themselves, whether these are they or not, weigh 30µg and are hollow inside so as to float on water. It prefers to grow in wettish places, even high up in peat bogs. |
| 10th Oct 2018, Dune Heath, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| Another specimen ripped asunder by the fingernails of your Author. The plant said 'ouch!'. |
| 10th Oct 2018, Dune Heath, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| A large colony of seed heads gone to seed. |
| 9th Sept 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | 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. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The leaves are Ace of Spades shaped. The basal leaves are on long stalks. |
| 7th Aug 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| A single stemless leaf clasps the stem less than a quarter-way up. Note the tiny brown Hydathode at the tip of these leaves too. |
| 9th Aug 2014, Ainsdale Sand Dune Slacks, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
| The leaves look as though they are perfoliate, pierced by the flower stalk, but they are not; the leaf only partially surrounds the stem and joins it by melding in as it curves steeply down to meet the stem. The stem itself is thin rectangular where the leaf joins it and has a rectangular rib on both sides too; reminiscent of the stalks on Blue-eyed-Grass. |
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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 (of which the BSBI website does not mention). This is possibly an example of cytopolyploidy, a variation in the chromosome numbers in varieties of Grass-of-Parnassus. Prefers wet soil, found in dampish places in the open, or in semi-shade It also 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, reminiscent of honey, only when the sun is shining. It is the County Flower of Cumberland and Sutherland. Prefers wet soil, found in dampish places in the open, or in semi-shade
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 Parnassia
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palustris
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⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ |
Parnassiaceae
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 Parnassia (Grass-of-Parnassus) |
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Grass-of-Parnassus Family [Parnassiaceae]
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BSBI maps