Plants from Svalbard to Nova Zemblia are reported to have flowers with a strong scent. Nectar is often secreted abundantly from the base of the ovary. The flower is so widely expanded, that in rain or melting snow it may be filled with water. The flower is initially protogynous and the stigmas mature before the flowers are fully expanded. At first the styles are longer than the stamens, but gradually the anthers become as long as the styles, and gather so closely around them that self-pollination takes place.
Staminate flowers occur, in which the gynoecium is very small, but the stamens are of normal length.
Such flowers do not set fruit. Pistillate flowers have been observed. They found that immediately before the flowers open the ovules are in the post-meiotic state and not ready for fertilization, until the flowers are fully open. The differentiation and ripening of the seeds takes a total of 11 weeks. Taxon as an environmental indicator.