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What is it? Mountain avens are low growing flowers with eight white petals and a yellow center (left). The leaves are small, textured and thick, growing densely on the ground. In summer, the flowers turn into soft, feather-like brown seeds (right). |
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Where is it? Mountain avens are circumpolar, found in arctic and alpine regions all over the Arctic except in central and eastern Canada. In Greenland, it is found only in the northeast, and in Svalbard, Finland, Norway, and the Faroe Islands, it is found only in the northern areas. It is found all around Iceland, where it is very common.
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Interesting facts |
- Mountain avens are the national flower of Iceland.
- Because they can grow in mats on gravelly slopes and loose ground, mountain avens are very valuable to stabilize soils.
- Mountain avens belong to the rose family.
Pictures
- Cover picture by Steinsplitter, retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryas_octopetala#/media/File:Wei%C3%9Fe_Silberwurz_(Dryas_octopetala)_1.jpg. License: CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Mountain Avens (Dryas octopetala)" by Allan Hopkins is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
