Wild flowers around Kimmirut

The wild flowers of Baffin Island are amazing. Little bursts of floral energy popping up in the most unlikely places. I have done my best to identify the flowers pictured below but can't guarantee 100% accuracy. My main reference source is Common Plants of Nunavut by Carolyn Mallory and Susan Aiken.

Seaside bluebells

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago while the plant was still compact. By now it may be sprawling out over the sand and a little less picturesque. Striking blue flowers and sturdy blue-green leaves, it is an unexpected beach comber's find.

Arctic poppy

Looks can be deceiving. Pale yellow flowers atop long thin stems may look delicate but this is a tough little perennial capable of rooting into rocky turf and weathering strong Arctic winds.

 

Arctic mouse-ear chickweed

Nothing I could say would be half as interesting as the name.

Just try and capture such a beautiful balance in your own rock garden. On the left is an Arctic poppy. White flowers to right of the rocks, I think, are Sandwart, a perennial.

 

An autumnal tapestry of mosses and rock seen in early August

A small pond high in the rocky hills is a good spot for these white poufs that I think might be Snow saxifrag. Cool, clear water

 

Mountain Heather

Low bushy plants with drop-shaped pink flowers. These have found a nice sheltered spot.

Mountain avens

A sign of late summer when in full bloom as seen below these white flowers with vivid yellow centres above dense green foliage stand out like floral fried eggs on stems.

Yellow oxytrope

Grey stems stretching out like spider legs are last year's growth.

Dwarf fireweed and dandelion which is called a "non-native invasive species" in this neck of the woods. Imagine!

Dwarf fireweed, a white member of the Saxifrage family I believe, and willow make a lovely natural garden in the school yard.

Don't know what this is, a type of willow perhaps, but it's awfully nice

More mossy textures on rock

Soft pink pin cushion of Moss campion, with small Arctic poppy

Arctic Thrift

Large-flowered wintergreen

Vibrant flourish of green

 

How can such a rocky face support green growth?

 

Willow tails

There are many many varieties of willows in the Arctic. Often they cling to the ground like ancient roots with no upright stem at all.

Our neighbour Ibelee commented while we were driving to gather mussels at the Reversing Falls one day that, over there in those willows, he sometimes saw ptarmigan gathered. The image of tall weeping willows pictured in my still southern-oriented brain made me giggle when I saw he was pointing at bushes a couple of feet tall.

However, not far away where Katanalik Park follows along the Soper River Valley toward Iqaluit temperatures are often warmer by 5 degrees and the willows can stand as high as 10 feet, the tallest trees on Baffin Island.

This is just a sampling of plants in the Kimmirut area. There are so many more, including grasses and sedges and others whose blooms have come and gone for this year. It's pretty exciting to hike the rugged hills and find such a variety of wild flowers tucked in around the rocks along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy