Alaska Alpines Blooming Now

[claykoplin]

Finally, a trip to the (low) mountains.  I've tried to properly identify what's blooming now, but the texts are sometimes a bit skimpy on Alaska Alpines.  If you want to Google Earth:  Snyder Falls Creek, 10 km north of Cordova, Alaska, a hanging valley 1km wide by 2km long at 500m elevation, recently de-glaciated. Unfortunately my somewhat amateut photographs of the many saxifrages were all taken at high resolutions and will not easily post, and I could not identify the lower resolution saxifraga.  There are many species locally, several grow wild in my yard at sea level, almost all of them white with a few pinks and a couple yellows scattered in.

Lupinus Arcticus is possibly Lupinus Nootkatensis, the texts had conflicting descriptions; the Lupinus Nootkatensis is pervasive at lower elevations but I have not noted the buds to be as hairy as the photos below, and L. arcticus is noted to have hairy buds.  Very excited to observe my first Alaska primula in the wild and hope to collect seed of this 2cm diameter, 4 cm tall primula with 1 cm blooms.

Clay Koplin, Cordova Alaska

[Ian Y]

Great stuff Clay, the Arctic flora is among my favourites.

Love the wee hairy lupin.

Thanks for sharing.

[shelagh]

The Trientalis has proved very popular and successful on the Show Bench this year I've seen several pots.

[David Nicholson]

The Trientalis has proved very popular and successful on the Show Bench this year I've seen several pots.

Lovely little thing isn't it. At first I thought it was a Lewisia but when I Googled Trientalis I found it was a member of the Primulaceae

[ruweiss]

Thanks for the pictures of these beauties, wish I could grow some of them in
my hot garden. Please keep on the good work and show us more of your native
plants and landscapes.

[Paddy Tobin]

Clay, how wonderful to see plants from such a beautiful and far away area. The lupin is the one which catches my eye; such a beautiful plant.

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

Great to have you back on the Forum Clay. It's been a long time, or have I missed something (again)?

I love the little lupin too and I think that's a Phyllodace growing around its base in the blue picture. It seems an odd combination. Here it would be lupin hot and dry, Phyllodace cool and damp but I guess nothing's very hot or dry in Alaska?

[David Lyttle]

Clay,

Very much enjoyed seeing your pictures of Alaskan plants and the habitat picture of the alpine meadow where they were growing: I would love too see more as I thought I saw some Arctostaphylos and some dwarf willows in some of your pictures. Is the moss growing around your specimen of Trientalis Racomitrium as a similar species grows here as well.

[claykoplin]

I will try to get up in the Alpine again soon, meanwhile, here are a few "roadside" flowers.  Rubus arcticus (Nagoonberry) is a favorite, I included the very fragrant flower and a patch of berries which are close to ripe.  The delicious berries used to sell for $25 USD in the 1970's - it's labor intensive to remove the stems from the berries.  I am not a photographer, but try to catch flower, foliage, and when possible a polinator.  I had never seen the Arnica before and am quite excited I noticed it in my quest for interesting subjects.  It has a nice compact habit and I suspect it will find it's way into my garden, and seeds to the exchange.  I'll have to look up Phyllodace, Leslie and see if that's what's there.  Remember that Alaska is 1/5 of the US landmass, 2/3 of US coastline, most of North America's largest mountains, and climates ranging from coastal rainforest (me) to taiga, to arctic desert - so there are many climates.  It gets very hot in the interior (Fairbanks) and dry (30 cm moisture) - the lupine seems to be able to adapt to both climates here. 

These roadside plants were from Sheridan Glacier Road 12 miles East of Cordova if you want to look it up, approximate elevation 30' or 10m.

[Maggi Young]

Wow! Roadside plants like those......
Aquilegia formosa
Arnica lessingii
Boschniakia rossica
Cornus canadensis
Campanula rotundifolia
Eplilobium latifolium
Lupinus nootkatensis.
Rubus arcticus
Aconitum delphinifolium ssp delphinifolium  .... are quite something 

I guess there are roadsides and roadsides! 

Boschniakia rossica is very striking indeed.  I read that it is parsitic on Alnus ( Alder) species 

[Tony Willis]

Super pictures,great to see the plants.

The Boschniakia rossica is much superior to the ones of B. strobilacea we saw in N. California which seems to be a parasite on Arbutus in hot dry conditions and quite stunted in comparison.

[Magnar]

Thanks for posting .. I recognise many of these from our visit to Alaska a few years ago. So nice to see them again 

[claykoplin]

There are some fantastic roadsides here, and no two the same, I'm going to try for both a roadside and an alpine series this coming weekend on one little road that follows Eyak Lake El 10m up an access road to Suprise Valley on Power Creek at El 250m at the high point of access road to El 175m at valley floor.  There are hundreds of high alpine valleys here, also no two the same.  I'll be hunting late blooming (alpine) fritillaria, viola, mimulus, geranium, iris, and others.  There should be at least two if not three more series of ten of the showier species.

The Boschniakia is indeed tightly parasitic to Alnus; I have never seen one farther than a meter from an Alder trunk.  Most notice them as the "ground cone", their local common name, late in fall after they are all brown, and don't bother to get close and see how amazing they are in "bloom".

I now have three yellow flowers I could not identify, maybe I'll include them as mysteries in the next series.  The ranunculus, anemone, arnica, and senecio are incredibly similar and the texts are fairly skimpy on the many species and subspecies.

[tonyg]

Fascinating thread and beautiful pictures - one more place on the must visit list!  Thanks.

[fermi de Sousa]

Thanks for taking the time to visit and then post your pics, Clay!
Alaska is a place I woiuld like to have visited when I was living in the States (1996/97) but maybe we'll do one of those crusies in our old age
cheers
fermi