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Dryas octopetala
Also called Mountain Avens, Eight Petal Mountain Avens, Eight Petalled Mountain Avens, Mountain Dryas, White Mountain Avens
Mountain avens is a small, prostrate, evergreen subshrub of Arctic and alpine regions that forms mats on limestone and gravel. It is grown in temperate gardens as groundcover or in rock and alpine gardens, where it needs sharp drainage and cool conditions.
Dryas octopetala, the mountain avens, eightpetal mountain-avens, white dryas or 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 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.
As a floral emblem, it is the official territorial flower of the Northwest Territories and the national flower of Iceland.
D. octopetala is cultivated in temperate regions as groundcover, or as an alpine or rock garden plant. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The leaves are occasionally used as an herbal tea.
Dryas octopetala has a widespread occurrence throughout mountainous areas where it is generally restricted to limestone outcrops. These include the entire Arctic, as well as the mountains of Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and in isolated locations elsewhere. In Great Britain, it occurs in the Pennines of Northern England, at two locations in the Snowdonia region of North Wales, and more widely in the Scottish Highlands. In Ireland, it occurs on The Burren and a few other sites. In North America, it is found in Alaska, most frequently on previously glaciated terrain, and through the Canadian Rockies reaching as far south as Colorado in the Rocky Mountains.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dryas octopetala by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
