Eight-petal Mountain-Avens
Dryas octopetala
The flowers are heliotropic; they act like parabolic mirrors, focusing solar heat onto their center to stay up to 10°C warmer than the surrounding air.
- Scientific name
- Dryas octopetala
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Rosales › Rosaceae › Dryas
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- tundra
- Habitat
- Arctic-alpine tundra, limestone barrens, and rocky mountain ridges.
- Diet
- Photosynthetic; uses deep taproots and fungal symbionts to extract nutrients from poor soil.
- Range
- Arctic Europe, North America, Siberia, Alps, Rocky Mountains
- Size
- 3-10 cm height; mats can spread up to 1 meter wide.
- Lifespan
- Over 100 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Climate change leading to shrub encroachment and habitat loss in southern alpine ranges.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. When exploring alpine or arctic regions, stick to established paths to avoid trampling these slow-growing mats. Do not pick the flowers, as they are essential for high-altitude pollinators.
Dryas octopetala (common names include mountain avens , eightpetal mountain-avens , white dryas , and white dryad ) is an Arctic–alpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is a small prostrate evergreen subshrub forming large colonies. The specific epithet octopetala derives from the Greek octo (eight) and petalon (petal), referring to the eight petals of the flower, an unusual number in the Rosaceae, where five is the normal number. However, flowers with up to 16 petals also occur naturally.
Photo: William Stephens, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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