Common name:
White mountain avens
Family:
Scientific name:
Dryas octopetala
Main flower color:
Range:
Scattered areas of the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains
Height:
Up to 10 inches
Habitat:
Rocky locations at medium to high elevations
Leaves:
Lanceolate, white-hairy underneath, green and glossy on top, with edges curved downwards. Up to 1.25 inches long
Season:
June to August
The wrinkled, evergreen leaves of dryas octopetala are quite distinctive; small, bright and shiny, with rounded lobes along the edges, which are curved downwards, hiding the whitish, woolly undersurfaces. The leaf stalks and some of the veins have dark glands underneath. The plant is a creeper, staying close to the ground, and inhabiting open, rocky areas close to or above the timberline. The white flowers are around an inch in diameter, formed of 8 (sometimes up to 10) white petals and the same number of pointed sepals, with a center of many yellow stamens. They grow singly, at the end of reddish, hairy stalks.
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