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Phyllodoce caerulea (blue heath or purple mountain heather) is a characteristic plant of many Low-Arctic and boreal regions but has an especially patchy distribution.
Heaths full of this plant flowering can be often seen from distance due to its spectacular colours.
It has needle-like evergreen leaves and a woody stem. Part of the wide heather family.
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Silene uralensis has a circumarctic distribution. This one is from #Svalbard.
Just look at the size of the flower compared to its shoot!
The flower is almost fully closed with minimal petals which hints that self-pollination is likely its main strategy. Insect pollinators can be sometimes scarce in High-Arctic.
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There are ~28000 species of #Orchids globally but only very few in the #Arctic. Chamorchis alpina is one of those. The only species in its genus.
It’s not as showy nor colourful as its many relatives, but it is always a pleasing find.
Occurs only on the calcareous heaths of Fennoscandia and #Alps. #Endangered here in #Finland.
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Dendrosenecio keniodendron or giant groundsel is a giant rosette plant endemic to Mt Kenya at altitudes between 3900 and 4500 metres.
All plants on Mt Kenya flower synchronously with irregular number of years between. Rosettes close and open depending on the weather and this way regulate the temperature in the middle of the rosette.
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Papaver alpinum (probably subsp. rhaeticum), the Alpine poppy in front of one of the most spectacular landscapes I have ever visited.
An European alpine species. Grows on dry ridges, screes and gravel. Comes in many varieties and colours. Also in people’s gardens.
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My next choice is Botrychium boreale (Boreal moonwort). It is a wonderful tiny weirdo.
A fern from sub-Arctic tundra and boreal meadows and floodplains. Its distribution is amphi-Atlantic meaning it occurs on both sides of Atlantic Ocean. Although the species avoids the most polar regions and highest mountains, it has even been found by the hot springs of high-Arctic #Svalbard.
The species is struggling in many places due to shrubification of previously open habitats.
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I will start with a species from one my favourite and diverse genus: Saxifraga oppositifolia (purple saxifrage) occurs widely in the Arctic and mountains of the North. It is one of the northernmost plants in the world.
The photo is from Pältsan mountain, Northern Sweden, one of the hotspots of Nordic mountain flora.
This will become a mega-thread. I will introduce one arctic-alpine plant species every day this year (or until my private photo archive runs out…).
These species are small and beautiful, fragile but hardy. Many are already endangered, and many will be losers in a warming world. Each one has earned our attention.
#ArcticAlpinePlants #Arctic #Alpine #Tundra #Wildflowers #Plants #biodiversity
Pekka Niittynen