23 June 2016 Beautiful Botany

Journal Entry

Botany is the Study of Plants

Cushion Plant

Since my first evening here I have been fascinated by the cushion plant or moss campion (Silene acaulis)! It's an evergreen plant that blooms shortly after the snow melts with tiny pale pink-purple flowers. It likes sandy soil and can be found growing on the sand dunes in and around our camp. It grows in a mat that can extend up to 2m (2 yards) in diameter. It looks like it's growing on a rock, but it is not. I decided to dissect one to see what is actually inside, and here's what I found.

The inside of the cushion plant's mound is occupied by roots.

The root structure of the plant occupies the space and pushes up the mound!

Some Other Flowers that Have Caught My Eye

Niviarsiaq is the national flower of Greenland. It grows in sandy areas and is thus sometimes called river beauty. It's name means girl or young woman, and it is often the name of girls. It is a pretty big flower and easy to spot.

Niviarsiaq, Greenland's national flower, grows on sand including river banks and moraines.

Pictured here is a tiny version of the rhododendron that may grow in your yard in the U.S. This one is Rhododendron lapponicum, and it is only a few inches, rather than a few feet, high!

Rhodendron lapponicum.

Labrador tea is also a rhododendron. It is used to make an aromatic tea. The Greenlandic station director of KISS calls it qajaasat; he tells me it is used as a tea when someone is sick and even as a poultice for a sore throat. He says whenever his grandmother gave it to him when he was a child, he was always better the next day.

Labrador tea.

Cotton grass (Eriophorum triste) is a sedge; sedges are similar to grasses; we planted sedges in our school garden this spring along the edges of the pond. Cotton grass is unique, though, because of the tuft on top that is as soft as a rabbit's tail!

Cotton grass (Eriphorum triste).

The Arctic poppy (Papaver radicatum) is a tiny version of the poppies found in other parts of the world. It is shown here right after snow melted on its petals and leaves.

Arctic poppy (Papaver radicatum).

In the U.S. birch is a type of tree. In Greenland dwarf birch (Betula nana) is woody, but it only reaches a few inches to a couple feet off the ground.

Dwarf birch (Betula nana).

I call northern thrift (Armeria scabra) the Horton flower because it looks just like the one that the Dr. Seuss character heard a who on in Horton Hears a Who.

Northern thrift looks like Horton's flower to me!

Dryas integrifolia is one of the first plants to grow on the scarred ground after glaciers have receded. It lives to be hundreds of years old. Scientists know this because of dendrochronology, the science of studying tree rings. In this case, they study the rings in the Dryas's main taproot, and find hundreds of rings. It's small but mighty!