naked miterwort, Mitella nuda

Naked miterwort gets little attention. It's a small thing, most often only a few inches tall, that creeps around forest floors. These fanciful if not colorful flowers are about a quarter inch wide. Among all the 35,000 or so citations in the North American Ethnobotany Database is one single mention. The Cree would crush a leaf, wrap it, and stick it in their ear for an earache. Some are 'naked' because there are no leaves on the stem, some get dressed with one or two very small ones. Naked miterwort grows in AK, CT, IA, MA, ME, MI, MN, MT, ND, NH, NY, PA, VT, WA, WI, all of Canada, on SPM, and into northeastern Asia. Wilderness State Park, Emmet Co MI, 5/25/12. Saxifrage family, Saxifragaceae.