Alpine wildflowers: need ID

[Papa Bear]

I got a few pictures of some wildflowers taken in Labrador. I suspect the climate there is similar to the alpine regions in the whites. Can anyone provide IDs for these?

# 1

# 2

# 3 (I think this one is Fir clubmoss.)

Thanks
Pb

 

[audrey]

The first is a pyrola.

The second stumped me because there seem to be no leaves. It looks like an anemone, but the crowded yellow center doesn't look like anything I've seen.

The third is certainly a clubmoss. This website has some good pictures if you've got the time to peruse it:

http://www.nfmuseum.com/flora_lycopodiaceae_index.htm

 

[vegematic]

I'm no botanist but I can find my way around an Audobon guide pretty well. The first looks like a shinleaf (Pyrola elliptica)

Can't add anything useful about the other two.
-vegematic

 

[Papa Bear]

Audrey

Thanks for the link. Looks like my clubmoss is Huperzia selago - Northern Firmoss, Mountain Clubmoss

I think the leaves for#3 are the small ground cover leaves. Here's a bigger picture. Look at the unopened flowers which seem to have the same kind of stalk as the white flowers and which seem to come from the small leaves. Notice also the stalk on the left (front) white flower.

vegematic

Thanks. That's two votes for Pyrola. Only problem with elliptica is the leaves. Note the small thick leaves on #1 vs. the larger leafier leaves on Pyrola elliptica. Somehow with those leaves, elliptica doesn't look like an alpine plant. Plus the flowers on elliptica hang down on all the Google examples. Maybe another Pyrola ...

Pb

 

[vegematic]

The link for P. elliptica certainly shows a different leaf. Interestingly, though, in my Audobon guide the description specifies the red stem which your specimen shows and is definitely not present in the link you provided. Don't have my guide with me now but will check it out later...you've got my curiosity up. Maybe "shinleaf" is a generic name for several Pyrolas and not one specific species? Anybody know?

Do you have another image of the second plant that shows its leaves? I agree the flower looks like some kind of anemone but I really can't match up the leaves.
-veg

 

[arghman]

what a great topic!!! & neat pictures! I will have to get up there someday.

ok, I think #1 is Pyrola chlorantha (but I think audrey should get the credit for recognizing pyrola genus & finding the newfoundland/labrador site -- oh boy oh boy oh boy they even suggest good botanical places to visit). The bottom four pictures on that site look similar, the other ones are more greenish (earlier in the season?)

#2: This stumped me for a while, & am not sure I have it correct.
here are some probably wrong guesses:
twinleaf
rue anemone
then I stumbled by accident on something in the Rose family which looks very similar (I thought the rose family had 5-part flowers?):
mountain avens (Dryas something-or-other) Dryas integrifolia The leaves are very distinctive as is the part of the flower in the center that sticks out (reminded me at first of the flowers on my hibiscus plant). Pb -- If you recognize both, it's probably from this genus at least.

(somebody needs to develop a botanical search engine, in their spare time. )

argh, this site is fun but it's a time-suck.

 

[arghman]

I'm leaning towards Dryas integrifolia as it doesn't have the tooths in the leaves and the leaves in your picture look smooth (I think). I wonder where it grows in New Hampshire; it's not listed in my alpine guide.

[Speaking of which, the "AMC Field Guide to the New England Alpine Summits" by Slack and Bell is now out of print, which is a real shame, so if you don't have a copy please write AMC and tell them they ought to reprint it.]

 

[Papa Bear]

arghman

Mountain Avens is all over the alpine areas of the Whites. Here's a shot I took a couple of years ago on Mount Madison: Mountain Avens. It has bigger leafier leaves and all the ones I saw were yellow. And although I don't know the absolute scale of the picture (#2) - I wasn't there - I'm assuming it's smallish based on the size of the sedge in the shot. Mountain Avens is quite large comparitively.

The Dryas looks more encouraging. I'll study those pictures.

Please note I did not take these 3 pictures. They were taken by an e-friend who was in Labrador last month and these 3 shots are all I have. He was nice enough to send me the photos knowing I am interested in the area, but he didn't know what they were either.

I love my AMC Guide. Sorry to hear it's out of print. I'll husband my copy carefully.

Pb

 

[audrey]

I vote for the Dryas - Newcomb's doesn't have that one.

As for the pyrola, here's a P. grandiflora that looks promising, and it lives in the same part of the world:

http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/_ca/www/pypygr.htm

(Someone tell me how to make the address a link!)

 

[Papa Bear]

Audrey

Thanks for the continued help. I'll check those links out. Pyrola grandiflora looks very close.

To make a link, click on the little icon on the top of the message composition window which has a blue circle with a little yellow rectangle below it to the right. It's between the icon of the mountain with a yellow background and the icon with the mail envelope and paper. On my screen it's just below the left end of the box that says "color". This is equivalent to the "HTML" button in the old version.

Alternatively you can do it the "hard" way (which works on all versions):

1) type "[" followed by "url="
2) paste in your link
3) type "]YOUR TEXT[/url]"

where "YOUR TEXT" is your text. i.e. "Mountain avens" or whatever.

Pb

 

[arghman]

Mountain Avens is all over the alpine areas of the Whites.

Geum peckii and various Dryas species both have the common name "Mountain avens". (another argument for using scientific names) "Mountain avens" always meant Geum peckii to me until I ran across the reference to Dryas octopetala... which is sort of amusing since the Dryas species are much more common, apparently widespread across many arctic/alpine places in the northern hemisphere -- whereas Geum peckii is a globally rare species limited to Franconia Ridge & the Presidential Range and a few areas in Nova Scotia.

 

[Papa Bear]

Geum peckii and various Dryas species both have the common name "Mountain avens". (another argument for using scientific names) "Mountain avens" always meant Geum peckii to me until I ran across the reference to Dryas octopetala... which is sort of amusing since the Dryas species are much more common, apparently widespread across many arctic/alpine places in the northern hemisphere -- whereas Geum peckii is a globally rare species limited to Franconia Ridge & the Presidential Range and a few areas in Nova Scotia.

Thanks. The flower I said was "all over the Whites" indeed looks like Geum pcckii, just as you say, and that is what appears in the picture I posted. I didn't realize it was quite so rare. The link I found said it's found only on the Presidentials and in one county in Nova Scotia. Rather than saying "all over the Whites" I should have said "not uncommon" in the Whites.

To quote from the link:

This alpine-boreal member of the Rose family can be found growing along mountain streams and rocky wet meadows, as well as bogs and sphagnum-moss depressions. Known from only two places in the world -- the Presidential Mountain Range of New Hampshire, and Digby County in Nova Scotia -- the species is considered something of a glacial relict. It is threatened by encroaching forest succession, and its habitat is likely to shrink further as the climate warms.

Another reminder of how special the mountains in our back yard are, and how important for us to protect them.

Pb

 

[arghman]

also note that the word "rare" can have several meanings depending on scale. Diapensia is a good example: it's globally common in arctic/alpine environments, but it is rare on a statewide level in ME and NH (Maine has a fact sheet on Diapensia)
and in the WMNF. On a local level its abundance/rarity varies wildly: in portions of the Crawford Path and the Alpine Garden, it is all over the place and may even be the dominant groundcover; in other sites there may be only very small patches of it.