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Pedicularis groenlandica
Also called Elephant's Head, Pink Elephants, Greenland Lousewort, Bull Elephant's Head, Elephant's Head Lousewort, Little Red Elephants, Elephanthead
Elephanthead lousewort is a hemiparasitic perennial wildflower of cold, wet mountain and arctic habitats, named for its elephant-head-shaped flowers. It needs moist conditions and a living host plant, so it is rarely grown in gardens.
Pedicularis groenlandica is a showy flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae commonly known as elephant's head, little pink elephant, elephantella, or similar common names inspired by the resemblance of the flower to the head of an elephant. It is also less commonly known as butterfly tongue for the long beak on the flower. Like many other plants in genus Pedicularis, it is a parasitic plant and depends on host plants to survive.
Pedicularis groenlandica and other species in its genus are rarely cultivated. Live plants are not offered for commercial sale due to the difficulties in growing host-dependent parasitic plants. Most, but not all Pedicularis species are completely dependent on host species. Seeds are available commercially, as it is sometimes propagated for wetland restoration efforts in its native range. In a 2002 report, the seeds were said to be non-dormant and to sprout at 22 °C (72 °F). Later work by Jeff Evans and Dale Wick found that while a host plant is not required for the seeds to sprout, they will decline in health and eventually die without a host. Evans and Wick list the seeds as having physiological dormancy and use gibberellic acid to enhance germination. In the wild the dormancy may be broken by warm cool warm cycles. Gardens with very wet, nearly boggy, areas may grow P. groenlandica, particularly with black alpine sedge (Carex nigricans), one of its most frequent host plants.
Pedicularis groenlandica is the most widely distributed member of the genus Pedicularis in North America. This plant is found in the high mountain ranges of western North America, including the Cascades, High Sierra, Rocky Mountains, western Canada, and Alaska. It also extends its range eastward through Canada and into Greenland. In Greenland, it is only found in a single location, the same place it was originally discovered growing near Nuuk in the Eqaluit commune's Paarliit Kuussuat (Paarliit Valley) at 64°01'N. The altitude range of the species is from 600 to 3500 meters in elevation.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pedicularis groenlandica 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.
