Arctic dryas

Sanddune with Dryas

Dryas integrifolia, aka Mountain-Avens, Arctic Avens, White Dryad, Dryas.

You see this flower almost everywhere--I first noticed it on the open hillsides near the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, then again in the light-shade meadows of the remnant boreal forest growing along the road to Twin Lakes. It also covers some sand dunes on beaches ajacent to Hudson Bay. It is a low-growing subshrub that forms a mat. This mat is especially visible on the sand dunes where wind blows away the sand and exposes what lays below.

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