# Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage

*Chrysosplenium oppositifolium*

This plant uses a 'splash-cup' mechanism: when a raindrop hits the cup-shaped fruit, the kinetic energy flings the tiny seeds up to one meter away.

- **Taxonomy:** Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Saxifragales › Saxifragaceae › Chrysosplenium
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** stable
- **Biome:** wetland
- **Habitat:** Wet, shady places, woodland flushes, spring-heads, and rocky stream banks.
- **Diet:** Autotrophic (photosynthesis, absorbing water and nutrients from wet, acidic to neutral soils).
- **Range:** United Kingdom, Ireland, Western Europe, Central Europe
- **Size:** 5 to 15 cm tall, forming creeping mats up to 50 cm wide.
- **Lifespan:** Perennial (individual mats can persist for decades through vegetative cloning).
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Water pollution, drainage of wet woodlands, canalization of streams, and climate-induced drought.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless. You can safely observe and touch this plant. Because it grows in fragile, waterlogged areas like stream margins, take care not to trample the surrounding soil and damage the habitat.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/1a81210b-5d5a-4f86-8ec6-c6d992a44abe
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/69626

- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/14698721/medium.jpeg (Shawn O'Donnell, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.