Recent Alaska Wildflowers Posts
New flora in the online guide and work on the print field guide
Winter is my time to sift through the hundreds or thousands of wildflower photos that I took the summer before and attempt to identify species for the purpose of writing my online Alaska Wildflower Guide and upcoming printed field guide.
Last week was the first time I sat down and started drawing up page templates for the Field Guide. I had hoped to self-publish this book by the start of this spring bloom season, but there’s no way that’s happening. I haven’t pushed back my goal date far. It will likely be September or October. Regardless, it’s happening this year.
For now, I wanted to share a few of the most recent online additions to the guide, starting with the dwarf alpine hawksbeard, pictured above. This plant tends to grow in soil with very low nutrients, typically in rocky riverbeds or alpine talus. I most often find it in terrain that is newly exposed due to glacial retreat.
The tubular blue flowers of the pale gentian resemble an ink brush, which is probably why it’s sometimes referred to as the inky gentian. This is definitely a unique flower; I’ve never seen anything else quite like it. I typically find it near streams or lakes, typically a bit higher up on the banks near the trees.
We have many saxifrages in Alaska. Most are white, purple, or white with yellow spots. The yellow marsh saxifrage (Saxifraga hirculus) is the only true yellow one I’ve encountered so far. The one pictured above was located along the Pinnell Mountain Trail (guide coming later this year) on my way up McManus Mountain in the White Mountain National Recreation Area. Its prime habitat includes wet meadows and tundra.
Last but not least is one of Alaska’s few carnivorous plant species, the round-leaf sundew (Drosera rotundifolia). This tiny plant can easily be missed among the other foliage and moss in sphagnum swamps or bogs. Its leaves are covered in red, sticky, gland-tipped hairs that trap small insects. Short hairs on the leaf surface secrete digestive enzymes, breaking down trapped insects into soluble nutrients absorbed by the leaf cells.
As always, thanks for reading. I’ll keep posting updates on where I am with publishing the field guide. We still have almost two months before the first wildflowers begin blooming in the Alaska Interior, so I’ll probably have a few more of these posts in the meantime.
If you’d like to contribute to my work on these guides (and more), please consider becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter, ordering photo prints on my website, making a one-time donation on Ko-Fi, or ordering one of my wall calendars. For 2025, I have my first dedicated Alaska Wildflowers Wall Calendar. Proceeds from this calendar will go directly toward hosting fees for the online guide and expenses for the field guide.
