The Rose Family in Iceland, Part 3: Avens

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Here are two gorgeous members of the Rosaceae found in Iceland.

 

Dryas octopetala
mountain avens
Icelandic: holtasóley

 

Iceland’s national flower is the blossom of this low-growing evergreen shrub, which is found in arctic and sub-arctic regions around the world, and further south at higher elevations. It can be found almost everywhere in Iceland. In the US it can be found growing above tree line in the Cascades and Rocky Mountains (and in Alaska of course). An article by the USDA Forest Service mentions this species’ importance to paleoecologists (there are a lot of Dryas fossils lying about), and also how this plant has an interesting twist on heliotropism (plant movement in response to sunlight):

Most plants that have similar abilities do so to reduce the amount of solar radiation striking their flowers or leaves. In Dryas, the flowers do the opposite, moving to maximize the amount of sunlight reflecting off the petals and onto the mass of pistils at the center of the flower.

 

 

Geum rivale
water avens
Icelandic: fjalldalafífill

 

Water avens is another circumpolar species, though it ranges much farther south than mountain avens. In North America it’s found in Greenland, Canada, and in the US, in New England, the upper Midwest, and as far south as New Mexico along the Rocky Mountains. BONAP shows it growing along a spine of the Appalachians in West Virginia. USDA Plants shows it present in Maryland but without county data, and it’s listed in Maryland Biodiversity Project but has no records. I’d guess there’s a small chance it could be found in the western parts of the state, since it’s been recorded on either side of Garret County in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  In Iceland it’s found in the coastal areas and somewhat inland, but not in the south.

mountain avens growing with Alchemilla glomerulans, Ranunculus species, and Equisetum species near Akureyri

 

closeup:

 

It’s hard to describe how eye-catching these flowers are, with the red-purple sepals and salmon-pink petals and all those stamens poking out. I hope these pictures do it justice.

There are over 250 species of Geum worldwide, about 20 in the US, and about six in the state of Maryland, one of which, Geum canadense, is blooming now.

The Rose Family in Iceland, Part 2: Potentillas

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Worldwide there are almost 1,700 species of Potentilla. More than 80 can be found in North America, four of which are in the Maryland Piedmont, including dwarf cinquefoil and common cinquefoil. There are five in Iceland.

 

Potentilla crantzii
alpine cinquefoil
Icelandic: gullmura

those fleshy leaves–>
belong to another plant;
the potentilla leaves are
pictured below:

Potentilla anserina
formerly Argentina anserina
silverweed
Icelandic: tágamura

 

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Providing stats for Potentillas is tricky, as there have been a lot of name changes recently. One of the older names for P. crantzii is Fragaria crantzii. The two genera are very closely related, so I’ve included this plant as well:

 

 

Fragaria vesca
strawberry
Icelandic: jarðarber

 

Yep, that’s good old strawberry (one of them, anyway). You can see a bit of the leaves on the lower right. The grassy looking stuff the flowers are poking through is horsetail (Equisetum species).

Back to silverweed: it can be found across the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and in most of North America except for the South and lower Midwest. It’s widespread in Iceland.

Alpine cinquefoil is limited in North America to northeastern Canada and Greenland. In Iceland it grows near rivers and the seashore.

The Rose Family in Iceland, Part 1

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The Rosaceae seems to be well represented in Iceland. Exactly how well I can’t say. There are about 470 species of flowering plants there, but my attempts at finding lists by family were frustrated by my inability to read Icelandic and by the limitations of google translate. I did actually find a list of species names, but not grouped by family, and I just can’t devote the time to looking up each genus to see what family it’s in.

Anyway, I found seven species of Rosaceae blooming, which I’ll post about over the next few days.

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Alchemilla alpina
alpine lady’s mantle
Icelandic: ljónslappi

 

 

 

 

Alchemilla glomerulans
clustered lady’s mantle
Icelandic: hnoðamaríustakkur

 

These two species have very similar if not identical flowers, but they can be distinguished by the leaves: clustered lady’s mantle is lobed, and the lobes are toothed all along the margins, while alpine lady’s mantle is compound, with 5 to 7 distinct leaflets that are toothed only near the tips.

A. alpina is native to northern Europe (including Iceland) and North America, where it’s found only in Newfoundland and Labrador, and Greenland. In Iceland it’s found almost everywhere except at the highest elevations.

A. glomerulans is also a northern European species. It has a similar range to A. alpina in North America, except that it’s also found in Quebec. In Iceland it has a smaller range, being absent from the southern coastal areas and drier parts of the highlands.

Five or six other Alchemilla species are found in Iceland, including A. mollis, introduced to both Iceland and North America as an ornamental (it’s a southern European species). According to the Maryland Biodiversity Project, there are no Alchemillas found as wildflowers in Maryland.

 

 

alpine lady’s mantle blooming near Sólheimajökull

That Beautiful Borage Blue

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20160616-_DSC0176

Mertensia maritima
oyster plant, oysterleaf,
sea lungwort, sea bluebells
Icelandic: blálilja
Boraginaceae

 

 

When I spotted this single plant on a black pebble beach on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, I knew it right away for a member of the borage family. There’s something unmistakable about that shade of blue, especially when paired with those pink buds.

M. maritima occurs on beaches at higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, including Canada, Greenland, Svalbard, and parts of the British Isles. It’s found almost everywhere in coastal Iceland. In the US it can be found in coastal Alaska and northern New England. It’s endangered in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

There are about 60 species of Mertensia worldwide, but only one is present in Maryland: M. virginica (Virginia bluebells):

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Myosotis arvensis
field forget-me-not
Icelandic: gleym-mér-ey
<—

There are four other borage family species in Iceland, all in the genus Myosotis. I found this one in several places, including way north (near Akureyri) and way south (less than a hundred meters from the end of the glacier Sólheimajökull). Field forget-me-not is common in the lowlands of Iceland, except in the northeast and northwest.

 

 

field forget-me-not growing with two species of horsetail,
Equisteum pratense and E. variegatum
—>

Field forget-me-not is found in Maryland as an alien, but we have a native, too: M. verna, spring forget-me-not:

It’s in the borage family, but it lacks that incredible blue color.

Remember my posts about Death Valley from earlier this year? The Cryptantha species I found there are also in the borage family. You can see the similarity in the flowers, even if the colors are different.

Marsh Marigold

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aka kingcup
Caltha palustris
Icelandic: hófsóle
Ranunculaceae

 

This early spring blooming perennial is found across the Piedmont in Maryland, with scattered occurrences in the Coastal Plain and Allegheny Plateau, yet I had never seen it before this June. I have seen a lot of its look-alike cousin, Ranunculus ficaria, one of our worst alien invasive plants.

You may be wondering, if it’s an early spring bloomer, why did I see it in June?

I saw it in June because that’s when it blooms in Iceland.

Marsh marigold’s native range is widespread: it grows in wet areas across the Northern Hemisphere in temperate regions, including Canada and parts of the US (in the US it’s absent from the Deep South, southern Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and the desert West). It’s endangered in Tennessee.  It’s widespread in the lowlands in Iceland. There are three species of Caltha occuring in the US; worldwide there are about a dozen species.

This plant has been on my personal watch list for years, so on the one hand I was delighted to finally see it. On the other hand, I’m mildly annoyed that it was a few thousand miles from home.