Grass-of-Parnassus

Common Name: Grass-of-Parnassus

Latin Name: Parnassia palustris

Family: Saxifragaceae

This native plant of the Saxifrage family has heart-shaped leaves and ivory white chalice-shaped flowers with distinctive glistening yellow staminoids which are attractive to pollinating insects. It is the only species of the genus Parnassia native to the UK.

It is found in base-rich flushes, marshes, damp grasslands and dune-slack habitats (hence the latin name palustris meaning boggy or marshy). It is not a common plant but is found locally throughout Britain and Ireland. However it is rarely found in most of South Wales and Southern England.

Grass-of-Parnassus is a late summer gem in the Yorkshire Dales. According to the Botanical Society for the British Isles (BSBI) it is present throughout the Yorkshire Dales National Park. However, it likes alkaline soil conditions and so is more frequently seen in the South West of the park on the Limestone Country such as on the Malham Tarn National Nature Reserve and in Upper Wharfedale.

Sources of information:

Mabey, R (1996) Flora Britannica – The definitive new guide to wild flowers, plants and trees London: Sinclair-Stevenson

Abbott, P.P (2005) Plant Atlas of Mid-West Yorkshire Kendal: Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union