Wildflowers For The Week Of April 14, 2024
New additions to my online wildflower guide
Here are my latest three additions to my online Alaska Wildflower Guide.
Silene repens - Pink campion
Silene repens, commonly known as pink campion, is a perennial herb with an inflorescence that is a cyme of 2-20 flowers. The calyx is a deep purple inflated, tube-shaped bell. The five petals are deeply cleft (up to 1/3 the length of the petal) and white or slightly pinkish. It’s typically found in mountainous areas, open forests, or dry slopes and distributed throughout northwestern North America and Asia, extending slightly into eastern Europe.
More info in my Alaska Wildflower Guide
Sanguisorba stipulata - Sitka burnet
Sanguisorba stipulata, commonly known as Sitka burnet, is a perennial herb with an erect stem growing 20-80 cm tall. The inflorescence is a terminal spike with 150-300 flowers and long, white stamens, giving it a brush-like appearance. It looks very similar but is geographically distinct from Sanguisorba canadensis, which appears primarily in eastern North America.
More info in my Alaska Wildflower Guide
Spergularia rubra - purple sandspurry
I photographed this flower last summer on the side of US Creek Road, a dirt road on the south side of the White Mountain National Recreation Area. I had quite a hard time identifying it, as it didn’t appear in many of the local floras or field guides. It is an invasive species that arrived from Europe in the mid-1800s with dry ballast on ships.
Spergularia rubra, commonly known as purple or red sandspurry, is an annual or short-lived perennial herb. It has tiny flowers with egg-shaped pink petals and often slightly longer, purple, lanceolate sepals. It grows most often in disturbed soils.
More info in my Alaska Wildflower Guide
Thanks for reading! I hope to update some older articles and publish a section on the genus Pedicularis (louseworts) sometime this week. A big part of this will be disambiguating many very similar species that are difficult to tell apart. Stay tuned!