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
Gymnopera section saxifrages are perennials forming rosettes of evergreen leaves, with leafless stems bearing panicles of small, 5-petalled flowers
S. × urbium is an evergreen perennial to 30cm in height, forming wide mats of rosettes of spoon-shaped, long-stalked leaves with scalloped margins. Small pink-flushed white flowers are borne in lax panicles from early summer