Flora in the mountains…

Todays topic will be plants in the Swedish mountain environment. The first one out will be Willow. Why I start with the willow is for you shall avoid passing the willow. It will make you wet, and is tough to pass. It mainly lives at an altitude of 200 to 900 meters in mountain areas, but occasionally also further down in the valley.

Willow…

The next in line will be the glacier crowfoot. The glacier crowfoot is a perennial, low-growing, up to two decimeters high, bare and slightly fleshy herb with white flowers. The stems and leaves are often reddish. The leaves are deeply lobed, with rather short obtuse lobes. Glacier crowfoot blooms in July-August, the flowers are large and sit alone or few together. The petals are broad, white at first but eventually pink and finally dirty brown-red. Glacier Crowfoot is very characteristic with its fleshy leaves and stems and white or dirty pink flowers. Glacier crowfoot grows in snowfields and other sparsely vegetated, moist ground in high mountain areas. It is fairly common throughout its distribution area and one of the species that can be found at the top of the mountain tops.

Crowfoot(sv. Isranunkel)

The Silene acaulis (sv. Fjällglim) is one of my favorites. Silence acualis is a perennial, evergreen, densely tufted herb. The stems are short and branchy, only a couple of centimeters high, and form wide flat tufts. The leaves are silky, just under a centimeter long, light green and have short hairs on the edge. Silence acualis blooms in July-August. The flowers sit alone on short stems, almost submerged in the tufts. The feeding tube is reddish and about half a centimeter long. The petals are shallowly cleft at the tip and pink and rarely white. The species is usually dioecious, that is, it has separate male and female plants. In male flowers, the stamens protrude from the mouth of the flower, the anthers are white. The female flowers have three long white spikes. The fruit capsule is slightly longer than the lining. Over time, Silence acualis forms rather large, low tufts that often flower profusely and give the species a characteristic appearance. Silence acualis is quite common throughout the mountain chain. It is a characteristic plant for calcareous mountain moors, but also grows near snowfields, river banks and on cliff shelves

Silene acualis (sv. Fjällglim)

Saxifraga oppositifolia (Sv. Purpurbräcka) is a perennial, creeping, evergreen herb that is usually mat or cushion-forming. The stems are prostrate and have close-set, criss-cross opposite leaves. The leaves are small and triangular with hairy edges. Saxifraga oppositifolia begins to flower very early in the spring, often right after the snow melts, but flowering specimens can be found well into the summer. The flowers are purplish-red and quite large in relation to the size of the plant. The fruit is a capsule with many small seeds. The purple bracken is a mountain plant that thrives in moist soil, in rock crevices and near snowbanks throughout the mountain range.

Saxifraga oppositifiola (Sv, Purpurbräcka)

See ya tomorrow..

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