July 27, 2009
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More arctic flowers.....
Dwarf Fireweed
Epilobium latifolium River Beauty is found along streams, sandbars, and lakeshores 
and on alpine and arctic slopes.
The beautiful Arctic poppy
grows in many places, even among rocks. The flower is made up of four petals formed into a cup-shape. The stems are hairy and 10 to 15 cm high with a single flower on each stem. The flower heads move to face the sun and soak up the heat of the sun.
http://www.saskschools.ca/gregory/arctic
Salix arctica (Arctic Willow) is a tiny creeping willow (family Salicaceae), a dwarf shrub which grows close to the ground to avoid the cold wind. It has adapted to the permafrost by growing shallow roots. Sometimes it spreads out covering the ground like a carpet. Inuit call it the tongue plant because of the shape of its leaves.
It is adapted to survive in harsh Arctic and subarctic environments, and has a circumpolar distribution round the Arctic Ocean.
It grows in tundra and rocky moorland, and is the northernmost woody plant in the world, occurring far above the tree line up to the northern limit of land on the north coast of Greenland. It also occurs further south in North America on high altitude Alpine tundra south to the Sierra Nevada in California and the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico, and in Asia to Xinjiang in China
It is typically a low shrub growing to only 1–15 cm (0.39–5.9 in) in height (rarely to 25 cm (9.8 in) high), however in the Pacific Northwest it may reach 50 cm (20 in) in height and has round, shiny green leaves 1–4 cm (0.39–1.6 in) long and broad, rarely up to 8 centimetres (3.1 in) long and 6 cm (2.4 in) broad; they are pubescent, with long silky, silvery hairs. Like the rest of the willows, Arctic Willow is dioecious, with male and female catkins on separate plants. As a result the plant's appearance varies; the female catkins are red-coloured,
while the male catkins are yellow-coloured.
Despite its small size, it is a long-lived plant, growing extremely slowly in the severe Arctic climate; one in eastern Greenland was found to be 236 years old
Mountain avens is the common name for dwarf, trailing or mat-forming shrubs in genus Dryas of the rose family (Rosaceae).
The genus includes about 4 species found mainly at higher altitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Three are native to Canada. Furry, evergreen leaves, a single decorative flower and a mat-forming ability make mountain avens popular for rock gardens. They may be grown from cuttings, tuft division and from seed, particularly in sandy soil. 
The very hardy species D. integrifolia was chosen (1957) as the floral emblem of the NWT, where it is abundant and blooms from June to July. It grows on rocky, barren slopes in the mountains of BC and Alberta, and throughout the territories and the arctic archipelago. This species has a corolla of white petals with a yellow centre. 
Canadian Encylopedia
Comments (2)
Beautiful!
@mammaquiet - Thanks. What I find interesting is the similarity between the flowers here in the arctic tundra to the alpine tundra and have explored that in a couple of posts previously.
My hope is that my blogging will give some of the reader's an appreciation for different areas of the north and that Edmonton is not north!
I know being in the pacific NW you guys probably get perception that Washington and Oregon are north!
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