2. 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.
http://montana.plant-
Judd, W.S. et al. 1999. Plant Systematics: A
life.org/families/Apiaceae.htm
• Fruit a drupe with 2-5 pits, or a
Phylogenetic Approach.
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
3. Family: Apiaceae (Umbellifereae)
Heracleum lanatum
Common name: Cow parsnip
www.larnerseeds.com
• http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=He
racleum+maximum
• 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.
oregonstate.edu
4. 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
Carolyn Parker, UAF Biol 474 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.
/
http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~ianc/Firth1/
5. Typical aster family flower
• Disk florets are tubular.
Ray floret Composite flower head Disk floret • 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.
http://www.anbg.gov.au/PLANTFAM/AUST1F
.HTM
6. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Achillea borealis
Common name: Common yarrow
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, http://www.essencesonline.com/Alaskan_flowerkit.htm
Flowering heads: Numerous in flat or round-topped paniculate-
corymbose inflorescence. Involucre bracts with dark margins.
7. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Artemisia arctica
Common name: Arctic wormwood
http://kaigan.civil.tohoku.ac.jp/~sawamoto/Gallery.HTM
Stems: 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
http://people.ucsc.edu/~mikeloso/Image_Gallery.html
to dry tundra, alpine meadows.
8. Artemisia frigida
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Common name: Praire Sagewort
http://ww1.clu
net.edu/cr/foo
t/scientific/fhl-
279.htm
Not in teaching collection
9. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Artemisia tilesii
Common name: Tilesius’s Wormwood
Lvs: smooth green above,
slivery, hairy below
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/books/Viereck/viereckwormwood.html
http://www.essencesonline.com/Alaskan_flowerkit.htm
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.
10. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Common name: Richardson’s Aster Aster sibiricus
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.
11. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Common name: Coltsfoot, Lapland Petasites frigidus
Butterbur
http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20807.html
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 http://haabet.dk/flora_danica/
thinnly tomentose beneath. Long petioles to 30 cm. Main stem has alternating clasping
leaf-like bracts.
Flowering heads: several to numerous in coymbose clusters
Flowers: 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.
12. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Common name: Narrow-leafed Saussurea
Saussurea angustifolia
http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/_ca/www/assaan.htm
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 petiole
Flowering heads: 3-5 in corymbose clusters
Flowers: 3-4 rows of involucral bracts. Ligules narrow, purplish, anthres purplish,
http://www.saxifraga.de/europa/gesamtartenlist
pappus tawny. e.html
Habitat: moist nonacidic tundra to dry tundra, forb-rich meadows.
13. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Common name: Black-tipped Groundsel Senecio lugens
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,
http://ww1.clunet.edu/cr/waterton/common/wgf-55.htm prominently black tipped.
14. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Common name: Northern Goldenrod Solidago multiradiata
http://jcsemple.uwaterloo.ca/goldenrod_figs.htm
http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Yellow%20Enlarged
%20Photo%20Pages/solidago.htm
• Superficially similar to Senecio lugens, but flowering heads relatively small, with dense inflorescence.
15. Family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Taraxacum officinalis
Common name: Dandelion
http://www.robsplants.com/plants/TaraxOffic.php
http://www.missouriplants.com/Yellowalt/Taraxacum_e
rythrospermum_page.html
Achenes of Taraxacum officinalis.
Not in teaching collection
16. Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
Mustard or Crucifer Family
• 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
Judd, W.S. et al. 1999.
Plant Systematics: A
the name Crucifer), often with an
Phylogenetic Approach. 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.
Draba lactea: Growth form, leaves, flower and capsules.
http://svalbardflora.net/index.php?id=206#
17. Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
Common name: Cuckoo Flower Cardamine pratensis
• 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
18. Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
Common name: Scurvy Grass Cochlearia officinalis
• 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.
http://www.kulak.ac.be/facult/wet/biologie/pb/kulakbiocampus/images/
http://www.plant- buiten-kulak/lage_planten/Cochlearia%20officinalis%20-
identification.co.uk/skye/cruciferae/cochlearia-
Not in teaching collection
officinalis.htm %20Echt%20lepelblad /
20. Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
Common name: Oblong-fruited
Willow Grass Draba macrocarpa
Flr: 4 yellow pelals
Fruit: 7-12 mm silicle, pubescent
Lvs w/ hairs
Densely caespitose
Hulten, Flora of Alaska
Not in teaching collection
21. Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
Common name: Arctic bladderpod Lesquerella arctica
http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/plant_profile.cgi?symbol=LEAR2
http://www.arctic.uoguelph.ca/cpl/sightssounds/Org_stills/of
b6body.htm
http://www.uaf.edu/grnhouse/arcticplants/lesquerella.html
Not in teaching collection
22. Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
Common name: Naked-stemmed Parrya
Parrya nudicaulis
http://www.kk.iij4u.or.jp/~shingo-t/plants/red.html
http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20844.html
Not in teaching collection
23. Campanulaceae
Bellflower Family
• 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
Campanula rotundifolia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Campanula_roton or bell-shaped corolla (as in
Lobelia cardinalis. Judd, W.S. et al. 1999. difolia.jpg Campanula) or 2- lipped to 1-lipped
Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach. and then with a variously developed
dorsal slit, the lobes valvate (as in
Campanula rotundifolia. Lobelia, shown in drawings). (See Plant
Family Characteristics web page for
more detail.)
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.
24. Family: Campanulaceae
Common name: Bellflower Campanula lasiocarpa
http://www.jardiniere.net/
campanula/campanula2.ph
p
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/turtles/04climbing2.html
http://www.renyswildflowers.com/10572.html
• 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.)
25. Caryophyllaceae
Pink 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.
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/c
aryophyll.htm
Silene dioica.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_ca
mpion_close_700.jpg
27. Family: Caryophyllaceae
Common name: Nodding bladder Melandrium apetalum
campion
http://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/arctic-islands/arctic-09-
de.html?id=9 http://nature.ca/aaflora/data/www/casiur.htm
Flowers: Solitary, pink to purple, sepals united forming tube, calyx inflated (like
Chinese lantern) with dark veins, nodding when young, erect in fruit.
28. Family: Caryophyllaceae
Common name: Moss Campion Silene acaulis
• Growth form: Cushion
forb, with taproot.
• Leaves: Lanceolate,
spreading.
• Flowers: Petals pink,
deeply cleft.
• Fruit: Dry ovioid
capsule.
• Habitat: Dry, wind
exposed sites to http://nature.ca/aaflora/images/b08
snowbeds, often 80087.jpg
calcareous sites..
http://nature.ca/aaflora/image
http://nature.ca/aaflora/images/casiac
s/casiacp2.jpg
u1.jpg
Closeup of leaves and developing
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Silene_acaulis_Kalk- Underside of plant showing
Polsternelke.JPG capsules with tubular calyx.
taproot.
29. Family: Caryophyllaceae Stellaria laeta
Common name: Long-stalked Stichwort
• 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,
http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20864.html
Hulten, Flora of Alaska
30. Family: Caryophyllaceae
Common name:Wilhelmsia Wilhelmsia physodes
Flowers: solitary,
white
sepals often reddish
Fruit: grooved,
spherical
capsule, 3 parts at
maturity
Lvs glabrous,
ciliate
Stem creeping in margin
Hulten, Flora of Alaska
• 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%20Proje
ct%20Images/Images/W.-physodes-1.jpg
Photo: Martha Raynolds
31. Crassulaceae
Stonecrop 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.
Sedum lanceolatum (stone
crop).
http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Yellow%20Enla http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Yellow%20Enla
rged%20Photo%20Pages/amerosedum%20lanceolatum. rged%20Photo%20Pages/amerosedum%20lanceolatum.
htm htm
32. Family: Crassulaceae Sedum rosea (= Rhodiola rosea)
Common 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.
33. 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.
http://www.plantsystematics.org/imgs/mmy Fruits: various shaped legumes, often
8/r/Fabaceae_Oxytropis_sp_25775.html a pea-like pod.
An unknown Mongolian Oxytropis, illustrating the typical pea flower.
Variety of Fabaceae legumes.
34. Family: Fabaceae
Astragalus umbellatus
Common name: Arctic Milk-vetch
Growth form: Erect forb 10-30 cm tall.
Leaves: 4-12 cm long, 7-11 leaflets.
Inflorescence: Short, few-flowered raceme
Flowers: Pendulous. Petals, yellow. Calyx lobes, short
triangular, green to brown, sparely black villous. http://www.renyswildflowers.com/20820.html
Legumes: 20-25 mm long, black hirsute, stipitate,
pedulous.
Habitat: Rich nonacidic meadows.
35. Family: Fabaceae
Hedysarum alpinum
Common name: Eskimo potato
Loment of H. alpinum.
http://www.colinherb.com/Leguminosae/Hedys
arum/Alpinum/Hedysarum_alpinum_1353_094.
htm
To separate H. alpinum (edible, Eskimo potato)
from very similar H. mackenzii (poisonous,
bear root).
H. alpinum leaves are glabrous on underside
http://www.goyert.de/cgi- with with prominent lateral veins; loments are
local/an//db.cgi?db=default&uid=&ww=on&
http://www.alclanativeplants.com/section2/plants/hedysarum_alpinum.htm
ID=13033&view_records=1 net veined and have a narrow wing margin and
2-5 joints.
H. mackenzii leaves are felty and whitish on
Hedysarum has a boat-shaped keel to the flowers..
underside and veins are not prominent.
Loments are cross veined, not wing-margined,
and pubescent with 3-8 joints.
36. Family: Fabaceae
Common name: Arctic lupine Lupinus arcticus
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. http://superactiondog.com/horton/pages/arctic%20lupine%20flo
Habitat: Common in nonacidic tundra and along rivers. wer.htm
http://www.naturewatch.ca/english/
plantwatch/species_details.asp?speci
es=17
38. Family: Fabaceae
Common name: Yellow or Field Oxytrope Oxytropis campestris
icf/fab/www/faoxct.htm
http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arct
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/479560/
Growth form: caespitose forb from stout taproot.
http://www.flogaus-faust.de/e/oxytcamp.htm
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.
39. Family: Fabaceae
Oxytropis maydelliana
Common name: Maydell’s Oxytrope
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.
http://ghs.gresham.k12.or.us/science/ps/nature/denali/flora/5/pea/ox
y/maydelliana.htm
Reddish brown stipule
Not in teaching collection Starchy root
40. Family: Fabaceae
Common name: Vetch
Vicia cracca
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.
41. Liliaceae
Lily 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.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?
http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/chocolate-lily- search=Veratrum+viride
wildflowers-eklutna-alaska-8867-pictures.htm
Fritillaria camschatcensis. Zygadenus elegans. Veratum viride.
42. Family: Liliaceae Lloydia serotina
Common name: Alp Lily
http://efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=78
51&flora_id=1
• A small easily overlooked lily, especially if not in flower with only narrow linear leaves http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/White
showing. Dry to moist arctic and alpine sites. %20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/lloydia%20ser
otina.htm