Forbs 1 8 families, 25 species

Apiaceae (Umbellifereae)Heracleum lanatum

Asteraceae (Compositae)Achillea borealis Artemisia arcticaA. tilesiiAster sibiricusPetasites frigidusSaussurea angustifoliaSenecio lugensSolidago multiradiata

Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)Cardamine pratensisDescurainia sophioides

CampanulaceaeCampanula lasiocarpa

CaryophyllaceaeCerastium beeringianumMelandrium apetalumSilene acaulisStellaria spp.Wilhelmsia physodes

CrassulaceaeSedum rosea

FabaceaeAstragalus umbellatusHedysarum alpinumLupinus arcticusMelilotus officinalisOxytropis campestrisVicia cracca

LiliaceaeLloydia serotina

Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)Parsley or Carrot Family

• Compound umbel (umbels arranged in umbels, racemes, spikes, or panicles).

• Leaves alternate, pinnately or palmately compound to simple, then often deeply dissected or lobed.

• Fruit a drupe with 2-5 pits, or a schizocarp, the 2 dry segments (mericarps).

• Mostly restricted to forest and low Arctic (exception Bupleurum triradiatum).

http://www.interhomeopathy.org/sumbulus-moschatus-keeping-perfect-control

http://montana.plant-life.org/families/Apiaceae.htm

Judd, W.S. et al. 1999. Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach.

Heracleum lanatumFamily: Apiaceae (Umbellifereae)Common name: Cow parsnip

www.larnerseeds.com

• http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Heracleum+maximum

oregonstate.edu

• Large robust perennial forb, up 1.5 m tall.• Leaves: ternate (3 part) petioles conspicuously inflated.• Flowers: compound umbels of white floweres.• Habitat: moist slopes, streamsides, roadsides mainly south

of tundra region and south Alaska.

Asteraceae (Compositae) Sunflower or Aster Family

• Mostly herbaceous species.• Leaves alternate, simple or

compound, without stipules; basal rosettes are common.

• Small reduced flowers (florets) are arranged in a composite head that is diagnostic for the family and acts as a single functional blossom.

• The head is subtended by imbricated bracts or phyllaries, collectively called the involucre. Composite heads may be solitary or arranged in corymbs, cymes, panicles or racemes on the plant.

/

Carolyn Parker, UAF Biol 474

http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~ianc/Firth1/

Typical aster family flower

Disk floretRay floret

http://www.anbg.gov.au/PLANTFAM/AUST1F.HTM

Composite flower head• Disk florets are tubular.• Ray florets consist of a

short tube and one long ray or ligule, and often lack stamens.

• The sepals on both floret types are reduced to pappus, bristles, or lacking entirely.

• Depending on the group, heads may have all ray florets (Taraxacum), all disk florets (Antennaria) or both, typically with disk florets to the inside, surrounded by ray florets (Aster).

• Fruit is an achene.

Achillea borealis Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Common yarrow

http://www.essencesonline.com/Alaskan_flowerkit.htm

http://littau.net/pictures/aug03/080303pic.html

Stems: simple, or somewhat forked above 20-60 cm tall. Leaves: alternate, 3-15 cm long, lanceolate, 2-4 times pinnate, highly dissected,Flowering heads: Numerous in flat or round-topped paniculate-corymbose inflorescence. Involucre bracts with dark margins.

Artemisia arctica Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Arctic wormwood

http://people.ucsc.edu/~mikeloso/Image_Gallery.html

http://kaigan.civil.tohoku.ac.jp/~sawamoto/Gallery.HTMStems: Branching forb, 10-60 cm tall. Leaves: From basal rosette, 5-20 cm long, 2-3 times pinnately divided, blade glabrous, bright green (most Artimisia are heavily tomentose, dull green)Inflorescence: Raceme or panicle of yellow and reddish tinged flowers.Habitat: Colonizing plant on river gravels, also along streams, and rich moist to dry tundra, alpine meadows.

Artemisia frigida

Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Praire Sagewort

http://ww1.clunet.edu/cr/foot/scientific/fhl-279.htm

Not in teaching collection

Artemisia tilesii Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Tilesius’s Wormwood

http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/books/Viereck/viereckwormwood.htmlhttp://www.essencesonline.com/Alaskan_flowerkit.htm

Lvs: smooth green above,slivery, hairy below

Tall perennial sage to 1 m tall.Leaves: mostly cauline (along stem), 2-10 cm long with 1- or 2- pinnatifid. Inflorescence: paniculate or racemose, nodding heads.Flowers: yellow, often tinged with red.

Aster sibiricus Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Richardson’s Aster

http://www.stewo.no/stauder_a2.htm

Freely branching erect forb with slender creeping rhizome 20-40+ cm tall.Stems: leafy, to 20-40+ cm tall.Leaves: Lanceolate, sessile, lower cauline leaves shorter than those above, sharply serratede to entire, ciliate. Inflorescence: 1-several compound flowers, with purple ligules, yellow disk flowers, pappus reddish brown.Habitat: Common along streams, gravelly river bars, dry meadows.

Petasites frigidus Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Coltsfoot, Lapland

Butterbur

http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20807.html

http://haabet.dk/flora_danica/

Stems: up to 10-50 cm tall, white tomentum, arising from cord-like rhizome. Leaves: 2-18 cm long, arising from the rhizome basal leaves highly variable shapes, cordate to reniform, sometimes strongly lobed and/or toothed, glabrous above, thick to thinnly tomentose beneath. Long petioles to 30 cm. Main stem has alternating clasping leaf-like bracts.Flowering heads: several to numerous in coymbose clustersFlowers: Involucre bracts, greenish or reddish tinged. Outer flowers, short white ligules. Disk flowers white or reddish tinged. Habitat: Common on mineral soils and disturbed sites where roots have access to mineral soils.

Saussurea angustifolia Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Narrow-leafed Saussurea

http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/_ca/www/assaan.htm

http://www.saxifraga.de/europa/gesamtartenliste.html

Stems: up to 1040 cm tall, white tomentum, from cord-like rhizome. Leaves: all cauline leaves (along stem), 5-10 long, linear to lanceolate sinnuate or slightly dentate often involute margin , tapering to narrow short petioleFlowering heads: 3-5 in corymbose clustersFlowers: 3-4 rows of involucral bracts. Ligules narrow, purplish, anthres purplish, pappus tawny. Habitat: moist nonacidic tundra to dry tundra, forb-rich meadows.

Senecio lugens Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Black-tipped Groundsel

http://ww1.clunet.edu/cr/waterton/common/wgf-55.htm

http://www.agt.net/public/begca/wildflower17.htm

• Large genus with many species in Alaska.

• Leaves: mainly basal leaves with alternating sessile cauline leaves narrowly oblong lanceolate

• Flowering heads: radiate or discoid. Ray and disc flowers yellow. Involucral bracts, prominently black tipped.

Solidago multiradiata Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Northern Goldenrod

http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Yellow%20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/solidago.htm

http://jcsemple.uwaterloo.ca/goldenrod_figs.htm

• Superficially similar to Senecio lugens, but flowering heads relatively small, with dense inflorescence.

Taraxacum officinalis Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)Common name: Dandelion

http://www.robsplants.com/plants/TaraxOffic.php

http://www.missouriplants.com/Yellowalt/Taraxacum_erythrospermum_page.html

Not in teaching collection

Achenes of Taraxacum officinalis.

• Leaves usually alternate, sometimes in basal rosettes, simple, often pinnately dissected or lobed, or palmately or pinnately compound, entire to serrate.

• Inflorescences: indeterminate. Flowers: 4 distinct sepals and petals often forming a cross (hence the name Crucifer), often with an elongate claw and abruptly spreading limb.

• Fruit a berry or capsule, fre- quently with 2 valves often breaking away from a central persistent septum (the fruit then a silique), these are highly variable in form and diagnostic for many species, short to elongate, globose to flattened.

Judd, W.S. et al. 1999. Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach.

Brassicaceae (Cruciferae) Mustard or Crucifer Family

Draba lactea: Growth form, leaves, flower and capsules. http://svalbardflora.net/index.php?id=206#

Cardamine pratensis Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)Common name: Cuckoo Flower

• Pinnate leaves. Upper leaves with linear leaflets; basal leaves variable in shape with more elliptical leaflets or even fern like (name “cuckoo-flower” derived from “crazy” basal leaves).

• White flowers with pink veins• Mainly vegetative reproduction

via adventious leaflets that detach and produce roots.

Image author: S.G. Aiken, C. Campbell and E. Robinson

Flora of Canadian Archipelago: http://nature.ca/aaflora/data/www/bacapr.htm

Cochlearia officinalis Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)Common name: Scurvy Grass

http://www.plant-identification.co.uk/skye/cruciferae/cochlearia-officinalis.htm

http://www.kulak.ac.be/facult/wet/biologie/pb/kulakbiocampus/images/buiten-kulak/lage_planten/Cochlearia%20officinalis%20-%20Echt

%20lepelblad/

• Growth form: Rosette (when young) to spreading herb with taproot.

• Leaves: Basal rosette of “spoon-shaped” (actually heart-shaped) leaves (from Greek cochlear, a spoon); upper leaves more variable, often toothed.

• Rich is ascorbic acid and used by explorers to treat scruvy.

• Fruit: Spherical to broadly elliptic silicles.

• Habitat: saline meadows near coast.

Not in teaching collection

Descurainia sophioides

Lvs & stem w/ glandular hairs

basal bipinnatifid leaves

Fruit: a silique; very elongate-cylindrical (noticeably flattened)

4 yellow petals, calyx green and purple

Hulten, Flora of Alaska

© Copyright Mel Harte 2010

© Copyright Mel Harte 2010

Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)Common name: Northern Tansy-mustard

D. sophioides, growth form and immature siliques emerging from flowers. http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Descurainia

Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)Common name: Oblong-fruited

Willow Grass Draba macrocarpa

Densely caespitoseLvs w/ hairs

Hulten, Flora of Alaska

Flr: 4 yellow pelalsFruit: 7-12 mm silicle, pubescent

Not in teaching collection

Lesquerella arctica

http://www.uaf.edu/grnhouse/arcticplants/lesquerella.html

http://www.arctic.uoguelph.ca/cpl/sightssounds/Org_stills/ofb6body.htm

http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/plant_profile.cgi?symbol=LEAR2

Not in teaching collection

Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)Common name: Arctic bladderpod

Parrya nudicaulis Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)Common name: Naked-stemmed Parrya

http://www.kk.iij4u.or.jp/~shingo-t/plants/red.html

http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20844.html

Not in teaching collection

CampanulaceaeBellflower Family

Campanula rotundifolia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Campanula_rotondifolia.jpg

• Growth form: Mostly herbs, but sometimes secondarily woody.

• Leaves: Usually alternate, simple, sometimes lobed, entire to serrate, with pinnate venation; stipules absent.

• Inflorescences various. • Flowers: Usually bisexual, radial to

bilateral, with hypanthium, sometimes twisting 180° in development (resupinate). Usually 5 connate sepals and 5 connate petal forming a tubular or bell-shaped corolla (as in Campanula) or 2- lipped to 1-lipped and then with a variously developed dorsal slit, the lobes valvate (as in Lobelia, shown in drawings). (See Plant Family Characteristics web page for more detail.)

Campanula rotundifolia.

Lobelia cardinalis. Judd, W.S. et al. 1999. Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach.

Lobelia cardinalis. Not an Arctic plant.Photos by Alan heilman and Penny Stritch. http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/lobelia_cardinalis.shtml.

Campanula lasiocarpa Family: CampanulaceaeCommon name: Bellflower

http://www.renyswildflowers.com/10572.htmlhttp://www.angelfire.com/journal/turtles/04climbing2.html

http://www.jardiniere.net/campanula/campanula2.php

• Usually small forb, 5-10 cm tall.• Leaves: Mainly basal, linear or lanceolate, dark green.. • Flowers: Solitary, nodding in anthesis. Hairy sepals (C. rotundifolia sepals are glabrous.)

CaryophyllaceaePink or Carnation Family

Growth form: Usually forbs, sometimes mat or cushion forms in the Arctic.Leaves: opposite, simple, entire, often narrow. Leaf nodes usually swollen; stipules lacking or present. Inflorescences: determinate, sometimes reduced to a single flower, terminal. Flowers usually bisexual, radial. True petals lacking, but outer whorl of 4-5 stamens very often petal-like, here called "petals” frequently bilobed. Fruit: Capsule, opening by valves or apical teeth, but sometimes a utricle;

Mostly Silene virginica. Judd, W.S. et al. 1999. Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach.

Cerastium sp.

Silene dioica. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_campion_close_700.jpg

http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/caryophyll.htm

Cerastium beeringianum Family: CaryophyllaceaeCommon name: Beringian Chickweed

http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20866.html

http://www.clunet.edu/cr/foot/common/fhl-367.htm

Melandrium apetalum Family: CaryophyllaceaeCommon name: Nodding bladder campion

http://nature.ca/aaflora/data/www/casiur.htmhttp://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/arctic-islands/arctic-09-de.html?id=9

Flowers: Solitary, pink to purple, sepals united forming tube, calyx inflated (like Chinese lantern) with dark veins, nodding when young, erect in fruit.

Silene acaulis Family: CaryophyllaceaeCommon name: Moss Campion

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Silene_acaulis_Kalk-Polsternelke.JPG

• Growth form: Cushion forb, with taproot.

• Leaves: Lanceolate, spreading.

• Flowers: Petals pink, deeply cleft.

• Fruit: Dry ovioid capsule.

• Habitat: Dry, wind exposed sites to snowbeds, often calcareous sites..

Underside of plant showing taproot.

http://nature.ca/aaflora/images/casiacp2.jpg

http://nature.ca/aaflora/images/b0880087.jpg

http://nature.ca/aaflora/images/casiacu1.jpg

Closeup of leaves and developing capsules with tubular calyx.

Stellaria laeta Family: CaryophyllaceaeCommon name: Long-stalked Stichwort

http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20864.html

Hulten, Flora of Alaska

• Distinct from Cerastium because of deeply cleft (bifid) petals often appearing as two petals. Cerastium has 2-cleft or notched petals.

• Separation to species often difficult; based on leaf shape and margins, sepal margins,

Wilhelmsia physodes Family: CaryophyllaceaeCommon name:Wilhelmsia

Hulten, Flora of Alaska

Flowers: solitary, whitesepals often reddishFruit: grooved, spherical capsule, 3 parts at maturity

Lvs glabrous, ciliatein marginStem creeping

Photo: Martha Raynolds

• Growth form: Mat forming forbs.• Leaves: Elliptic lanceolate, sessile. • Flowers: Solitary, white. Sepals often

purplish. • Fruit: Grooved spherical capsule.

inflated, 2-3 locules.• Habitat: Streams and brackish

shorelines.

Inflated fruits of W. physodes. http://www.cdhs.us/Flower%20Project/Flower%20Project%20Images/Images/W.-physodes-1.jpg

CrassulaceaeStonecrop Family

Succulent herbs; with leafy stems. Leaves: succulent, inflated; stipules lacking.Inflorescences: determinate, sometimes reduced to a solitary flower, terminal or axillary. Flowers: Sepals and petals usually 4 or 5, distinct or nearly so; stamens 4-10. Fruit: an aggregate of dry dehiscent follicles.

http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Yellow%20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/amerosedum%20lanceolatum.htm

http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Yellow%20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/amerosedum%20lanceolatum.htm

Sedum lanceolatum (stone crop).

Sedum rosea (= Rhodiola rosea) Family: CrassulaceaeCommon name: Roseroot

http://www.renyswildflowers.com/10665.html

Growth form: Succulent forb, with thick much branched rhizome.Leaves: Alternate, oblong lanceolate, entire or dentate.Flowers: Dense terminal cluster, male flowers yellow, female flowers dark red to purple.Fruits: Follicles, reddish, plump. Habitat: Moist alpine sites to rocky beaches. Saline tolerant.

Fabaceae (Leguminosae)Legume or Pea Family

Growth form: Perennial herbs in the Arctic but trees and shurbs in many temperate and tropical areas.Leaves: Alternating, pinnately or palmately compound, stipulate.Flowers: Perfect, irregular; calyx cup-shaped or tubular, usually with 5 teeth. Corolla with 5 petals, with upper median one larger (the banner) and two similar lateral ones (wings), and with two lowest petals joined to form a keel.Fruits: various shaped legumes, often a pea-like pod.

An unknown Mongolian Oxytropis, illustrating the typical pea flower.

http://www.plantsystematics.org/imgs/mmy8/r/Fabaceae_Oxytropis_sp_25775.html

Variety of Fabaceae legumes.

Astragalus umbellatusFamily: FabaceaeCommon name: Arctic Milk-vetch

http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20820.html

Growth form: Erect forb 10-30 cm tall.Leaves: 4-12 cm long, 7-11 leaflets.Inflorescence: Short, few-flowered racemeFlowers: Pendulous. Petals, yellow. Calyx lobes, short triangular, green to brown, sparely black villous.Legumes: 20-25 mm long, black hirsute, stipitate, pedulous.Habitat: Rich nonacidic meadows.

Hedysarum alpinumFamily: FabaceaeCommon name: Eskimo potato

http://www.goyert.de/cgi-local/an//db.cgi?db=default&uid=&ww=on&ID=13033&view_records=1

http://www.alclanativeplants.com/section2/plants/hedysarum_alpinum.htm

To separate H. alpinum (edible, Eskimo potato) from very similar H. mackenzii (poisonous, bear root).H. alpinum leaves are glabrous on underside with with prominent lateral veins; loments are net veined and have a narrow wing margin and 2-5 joints.H. mackenzii leaves are felty and whitish on underside and veins are not prominent. Loments are cross veined, not wing-margined, and pubescent with 3-8 joints.

Loment of H. alpinum. http://www.colinherb.com/Leguminosae/Hedysarum/Alpinum/Hedysarum_alpinum_1353_094.htm

Hedysarum has a boat-shaped keel to the flowers..

Lupinus arcticus Family: FabaceaeCommon name: Arctic lupine

http://superactiondog.com/horton/pages/arctic%20lupine%20flower.htm

http://ultima0thule.blogspot.com/2011_03_20_archive.html

Leaves. Palmate leaves. Basal leaves long petioled. Inflorescence: Showy racemes 4-14 cm long. Corolla: Bluish purble.Pods: 2-4 cm long, silky pilose. Habitat: Common in nonacidic tundra and along rivers.

http://www.naturewatch.ca/english/plantwatch/species_details.asp?species=17

Melilotus officinalis Family: FabaceaeCommon name: Yellow sweet clover

http://www.gfmer.ch/TMCAM/Atlas_medicinal_plants/Melilotus_officinalis.htm

• Tall (50-150 cm) roadside weed.• Trifoliate leaves with elliptical leaflets, terminal leaflet

stalked.• Small, yellow corolla.

Family: FabaceaeCommon name: Yellow or Field Oxytrope

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/479560/

Oxytropis campestris

http://www.flogaus-faust.de/e/oxytcamp.htm

http://w

ww

.mun.ca/biology/delta/

arcticf/fab/ww

w/faoxct.htm

Growth form: caespitose forb from stout taproot.Leaves: basal, pinnate with 11-35 mostly opposite silky-pilose to glabrescent leaflets.Flowering heads: Capitate racemes, 6-26 flowered.Flowers: cream colored to yellow. Calyx with black and white hairs, Fruit: Pods, yellow green with mixed white and black hairs. Habitat: Common on gravel river bars and terraces and open slopes.

Oxytropis maydelliana Family: FabaceaeCommon name: Maydell’s Oxytrope

http://ghs.gresham.k12.or.us/science/ps/nature/denali/flora/5/pea/oxy/maydelliana.htm

Not in teaching collection

Has mass of reddish-brown stipules at base of stem. Upper part of roots are good to eat and heavily used by Arctic ground squirrels near Toolik.

Reddish brown stipule

Starchy root

Vicia cracca Family: FabaceaeCommon name: Vetch

http://www.mtq.gouv.qc.ca/fr/reseau/gestion_eco/fleur.asp

• Climbing forb by means of tendrils at end of pinnate leaves. • Common weed in Fairbanks area. • Flowers, purple racemes.

LiliaceaeLily Family

• Worldwide distribution. Includes many ornamentals as well as onion, garlic, and chives. A very diverse family which is divided into several different families by some workers.

• Herbaceous, 3-merous flowers which are distinctive and known to most. Many have bulbs, corms, or swollen rhizomes. Leaves are simple, often basel, and have parallel venation. Flowers are regular and may be showy, or small and inconspicous, but always have that 'lily' look with 3 sepals (which may be petaloid), 3 petals, and 6 stamens.

Courtesy: Carolyn Parker, UAF Biol 474

http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/chocolate-lily-wildflowers-eklutna-alaska-8867-pictures.htm

Fritillaria camschatcensis. Zygadenus elegans. Veratum viride.

http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Veratrum+viride

Lloydia serotina Family: LiliaceaeCommon name: Alp Lily

http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/White%20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/lloydia%20serotina.htm

http://efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=7851&flora_id=1

• A small easily overlooked lily, especially if not in flower with only narrow linear leaves showing. Dry to moist arctic and alpine sites.