Saxifraga can be annuals, biennials, evergreen or herbaceous perennials, mostly mat-forming in habit, with simple or palmately lobed leaves and starry or rounded flowers which may be solitary of in panicles or cymes
Irregulares section saxifrages are shade-tolerant, usually herbaceous perennials forming rosettes broad, palmately lobed leaves, with leafless stems bearing lax panicles of small flowers with short upper, and longer lower petals, in summer or autumn
S. fortunei is an herbaceous perennial to 40cm in height, with fleshy, rounded, lobed basal leaves to 10cm across, often reddish beneath. Flowers white, with short upper and 1-2 long lower petals, in large open panicles from late summer