PLANT PORTRAIT
Greenland sandwort
Minuartia groenlandica
This beautiful little alpine plant can be
found miraculously growing out of the crevices of granite rocks on windswept
barrens where it is associated with reindeer moss and other lichens. It is
found on bare mountain summits at medium elevations and as its name would
suggest, in the alpine zone of Greenland. In Nova Scotia and Newfoundland it is
uncommon to rare and its habitat requires protection. It occurs in Halifax
Regional Municipality at the top of Blue Mountain (near Hammonds Plains) and in
some areas of granite outcrop such as the Herring Cove Backlands.
It is one of the few alpine plants that
bloom all summer — from June until late October in Nova Scotia — it was
blooming at one location in HRM in mid-October this year. Its clusters of small
delicate white flowers with yellow centers bloom above narrow green leaves
resembling chickweed often forming tufts or mats at the base. Typically, it is
no more than 8 centimeters in height.
I collected a small quantity of seed at
two different sites in HRM this fall after many of the plants had already
matured and dispersed most of their seed thus reassuring myself that next
year’s plants would not be compromised. Jeremy Lund home, a botanist at Saint
Mary’s University advises that the seed germinates readily, requires no
stratification and that the plant is remarkable for its resistance to drought.
Also known as Mountain Sandwort, its
taxonomy has been changed recently from Arenaria
groenlandica to Minuartia groenlandica.
Because of its relatively small delicate
form it can be unintentionally crushed under a hiker’s boot, or even worse,
under a motorized recreational vehicle. Protecting the habitat of our own
alpine plants is an obvious priority.
The small amount of seed will be available
from the Seed Exchange. It is hoped that we might start generating our own seed
supply without need to harvest seed from plants growing in the wild. So, if you
have granite outcrop on your property this may be a natural choice. It also
should lend itself to troughs.
Ruth E. Smith
from the ARHS Feb, 2007 Newsletter