Greenland and Memories of the Alaskan Arctic 11-13

My Blog Reports of my trip to Greenland are slowly winding down. The trip was powerful in its ability to remind me of our times living in Anchorage in the late 60's. One of the first flowers that I recognized in Greenland was an old friend from Alaska - Arctic Cotton. Here is a classic portrait of Jan and our older boys in an entire field of Arctic Cotton in 1967.

In the wilds of Alaska we combined  artistic ingenuity with the need for handling life's challenges. Our neighbor Barbara Myers painted flowers on this useful art object. We learned from the old 'acrylic paint on the bottom' lesson why the old masters used several coats of sealer to protect their art work. Once the art was sealed it was eminently successful and highly utilitarian.

In fact we never left home without it.

This is the young Queen on the ice pack at the village of Point Hope Alaska in June of 1970.

This is the happy couple under some massive whale bones in the coastal whaling village of Point Hope. It is no wonder that I had a longing for the arctic through the years that came to fruition with multiple Canoe Expeditions to Arctic Canada and this summers trip to Greenland.

..... There's a land where the mountains are nameless,

         And the rivers all run God knows where;

      There are lives that are erring and aimless,

         And deaths that just hang by a hair;

      There are hardships that nobody reckons;

      There are valleys unpeopled and still;

      There's a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,

         And I want to go back—and I will. .....

      It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,

   It's the forests where silence has lease;

      It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,   

      It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

          Robert W. Service  The Spell of the Yukon

          

       

Greenland Mystery Flower #1 Primrose 11-12

With help from flower pros in Colorado we think that this flower from the shore of western Greenland is a primrose.

It is either Primula egaliksensis (Greenland primrose) or Primula stricta.  They both grow in Greenland.   The pink to lilac (sometimes white) flowers are composed of five deeply notched petals fused into a tube at the base.They are arranged in a solitary tight umbel of 5 to 8 flowers at the tip of a long stem arising from a rosette of spoon-shaped basal leaves (below). 

P. egaliksensis is very similar in color, size, and shape to P. stricta. The distinction between the two requires a magnified look at the calyx. Of the two only P.egaliksensis has minute glandular hairs on the lobes of the calyx.  These hairs end in a tiny sticky globe (which I probably could have seen with my macro lens- if I had read three books, looked it up on my laptop, and sent multiple e-mails and texts and a few phone calls from the western shores of Greenland). At least I didn't step on it as I was warned not to do by Page Burt in her book Barrenland Beauties.

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? Pink Family -notched petals like chick weed

Flower for the Day Arctic Poppy Greenland 10-11

This is arctic poppy (Papaver radicatum) on the tundra. It is a solar collector. The  flowers have yellow petals which are shaped to reflect the rays of the sun onto the ovaries in the center of the corolla raising the temperature to encourage rapid maturation of the seeds. The flower head rotates to face the sun (much like sunflowers) keeping the rays focused. There are dark hairs on the outside of the maturing capsules which absorb heat also aiding seed maturation. The small black seeds are dispersed by the wind through holes in the top of the mature dry capsule.

Arctic poppies have wintergreen leaves. These are leaves that develop late in the summer and survive the winter. They remain green and can start photosynthesis as soon as the weather warms in the spring before there has been time for the new season's leaves to function. This gives the plant an important head start.

Local Swimmer breaks personal record with early November swim 11-9

Bright sunny day - clear water.

There is no hesitation. The life guard is praying that he will not be needed.

There she goes!

And here she comes.

My hero!

Flower for the Day Mouse-ear Chickweed Greenland 11-9

Mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium vulgatum) is an herbaceous plant with showy white starlike flowers

bearing five notched petals. It is distinct because of the rounded tips of the petals and hairy leaves which resemble mouses ears. It is a perennial broad leaf weed with a sprawling growth pattern.

Flower for the Day Bearberry Greenland 11-5

Bearberry plants (Arctostaphylos) form mats on the tundra. The flowers are seen only in the spring (June). The leaves (below) turn

vibrant scarlet, coloring large areas of the tundra. The leaves are rounded and the base tapers to the petiole. 

Flower for the Day Beach Pea Greenland 11-4

Beach Pea (Lathyrus maritimus) is a legume with many other names: sea pea, circumpolar pea, and sea vetchling. The flowers are broad with a dark purple  standard petal and paler purple and white keel and wing petals.

These beach peas were on the shore at Bratahlid, Eric the Red's hillside estate on a fjord on the south western 

coast of Greenland. Sea peas have a large worldwide distribution because of the capacity of its seeds to maintain viability in sea water for over 5 years.

A Rainy Halloween Day 10-31

Neighbors drop by to check out the new kayak.

Flower for the Day Queen in the Garden 11-3

The Queen shows how tall the dahlias and morning glories grew this year. They will soon be gone 

only to return again next year.

 

 

Flower for the Day Celosia 11-2

The nights are getting colder and the garden is winding down. The celosia (Celosia cristata) in the front garden

is mature forming spear heads and cockscomb structures in bright magenta. I save the seed heads for drying and

for the seeds which are very successful in producing this annual year after year.