Wildlife Viewing Common Yukon roadside flowers © Government of Yukon 2019 ISBN 987-1-55362-830-9 A guide to common Yukon roadside flowers All photos are Yukon government unless otherwise noted. Bog Laurel Cover artwork of Arctic Lupine by Lee Mennell. Yukon is home to more than 1,250 species of flowering For more information contact: plants. Many of these plants Government of Yukon are perennial (continuously Wildlife Viewing Program living for more than two Box 2703 (V-5R) years). This guide highlights Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6 the flowers you are most likely to see while travelling Phone: 867-667-8291 Toll free: 1-800-661-0408 x 8291 by road through the territory. Email: [email protected] It describes 58 species of Yukon.ca flowering plant, grouped by Table of contents Find us on Facebook at “Yukon Wildlife Viewing” flower colour followed by a section on Yukon trees. Introduction ..........................2 To identify a flower, flip to the Pink flowers ..........................6 appropriate colour section White flowers .................... 10 and match your flower with Yellow flowers ................... 19 the pictures. Although it is Purple/blue flowers.......... 24 Additional resources often thought that Canada’s Green flowers .................... 31 While this guide is an excellent place to start when identi- north is a barren landscape, fying a Yukon wildflower, we do not recommend relying you’ll soon see that it is Trees..................................... 32 solely on it, particularly with reference to using plants actually home to an amazing as food or medicines. The following are some additional diversity of unique flora. resources available in Yukon libraries and bookstores. Four-parted Gentian The Boreal Herbal: Wild Food & Medicine Plants of the North (2011). Gray, B. Aroma Borealis Press. Field Guide to Alaska Wildflowers (2009). Pratt, V.E. Alaskakrafts Publishing. Flora of the Yukon Territory (1996). Cody, W.J. NRC Research Press Plants of Northern British Columbia (1999). Mackinnon, A., Pojar, J. & R. Coupé, Lone Pine Publishing. Wildflowers of the Yukon, Alaska and Northwestern Canada (2009). Trelawny, J. Harbour Publishing 1 Introduction Yukon’s territorial flower Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) is Yukon’s official flower. Although it is found in most parts of Canada, it is a common plant here thanks to forest fires. As one of the first plants to colonize a landscape after Grizzly Bear a forest fire, Fireweed sets Viewing etiquette eating dandelions. the hillsides ablaze with brilliant pinks and purples, To be respectful of plants, their habitats a welcome reminder of the and other wildlife, please follow these guidelines. regrowth to come. Avoid trampling. Follow trails and paths to avoid Fireweed is used in many unnecessary trampling of vegetation. If you must move off locally produced products, the path, spread out to minimize the impact on one area. such as honey, tea, salads Peter Long Clean your boots and pants to avoid and creams. One local Fireweed is one of the first to cross-contaminating areas. Seeds from invasive brewery even makes a bloom after a forest fire. plants may cling to your pant cuffs, socks or boot bottoms special ale with it. and could be transferred to another area. However, Fireweed was not the first choice for the flower Watch for wildlife. Many flowers produce seeds of the territory. At the urging of Martha Louise Black, and berries. Try not to disturb birds and wildlife while an avid flower lover and well-respected resident of the time, they are enjoying their feast. Yukon adopted the Prairie Crocus (Pulsatilla patens) as its official flower in 1954. Mrs. Black felt the crocus represented Take only pictures. Many of these plants take years the Yukon spirit because it is the first flower to appear to bloom and picking them could kill the rest of the plant. as the snow melts. She felt Fireweed was too “common” Pick up litter. Please leave an area as clean and to merit special status. undisturbed as possible, so that the next visitors can Unfortunately, Manitoba enjoy the same Yukon wildlife experience. had laid claim to the Pasque- flower, as the Prairie Crocus is also known. Out of deference to Mrs. Black, the government waited until after she passed away in 1957 before naming Peter Long Bruce Bennett the resilient Fireweed as Peter Long A wildlife viewer takes home a Foxtail Barley seeds can Yukon’s official flower. Prairie Crocus or Pasqueflower. souvenir of a unique plant, in the spread by sticking to clothing. form of a great photo. 2 3 Unique Yukon flora Yukon invaders Some people think Canada’s north is a harsh landscape This guide includes with very little natural diversity. Boreal forests of evergreen descriptions of trees do dominate the area, but a variety of habitats contain the most common many unique and interesting plants. wildflowers you may see, whether During the Ice Age, lan expose toay they are native a vast landscape Berinian shoreline, expose seabe Glaciers urin last laciation or introduced. in Yukon remained RCC OCAN NT ndigirka R. unglaciated. Known Yukon After habitat loss, Chukchi ea as Beringia, many Kolyma R. invasive plants and plants and animals Sieria aska animals are the Omolon R. Yukon R. nadyr R. Lloyd Freese continued to thrive greatest threat to biodiversity. ering ea here while much Of the 120 plant species of Canada was introduced to Yukon, a few Common Tansy is mildly toxic and buried under ice. PACFC OCAN 0 500 km have become invasive. Adapted from Hopkins et al., 1982, al., 1982, Hopkins et Adapted from Beringia. of Paleoecology emits a pungent smell when crushed. The isolation of Though some of these Extent of ice flow during recent glaciation. Beringia allowed invasive plants may have beautiful flowers, they may some plants to evolve so that they are found no place else on also harbour disease or insect pests, and have the potential earth. This has made Yukon one of the richest floral regions to change natural processes such as increasing fire in Canada, with greater diversity than the Canadian prairies. frequency or restricting water flow. In order to keep native Yukon plants healthy and abundant, please take care to not transplant or spread new species around the territory. Martin Owen Bruce Bennett Yukon Draba is only found Yukon Goldenweed is one in southwest Yukon and nowhere of five Yukon plants found else on earth. nowhere else on earth. Baikal Sedge needs specific habitat, such as the Carcross Dunes, Bruce Bennett Bruce Bennett to survive. It is listed as Threathened Perennial Sow-thistle is an invasive Great Blanket Flower, a garden Peter Long in Canada. plant that spreads long distances plant that has gone wild. by wind-blown seed. 4 5 Kinnikinnick Pink Flowers Arctostaphylos uva-ursi | Heath family This trailing evergreen shrub is common on rocky outcrops Raup’s Paintbrush Bruce Bennett Castilleja raupii | Figwort family and dry forest floors throughout Yukon, often forming mats. The name Kinnikinnick, meaning The purplish-pink flowers look like “mixture” in the Chinook trading they have been dipped in paint, language, refers to the use of giving this plant its common name. the leaves of this plant in Raup’s Paintbrush is a parasitic smoking mixtures. The small, plant, feeding on the roots of pink, urn-shaped flowers give other plants. A similar species, way to bright red berries that Yukon Paintbrush (Castilleja yukonis) are edible, but dry and mealy. has yellow flowers and can be Bruce Bennett found in southern Yukon. There are Mountain Cranberry, Low-bush Cranberry eight species of paintbrush Vaccinium vitis-idaea ssp. minus | Heath family in Yukon. This small, mat-forming evergreen shrub Twinflower is one of the most well-known Yukon Linnaea borealis | Honeysuckle family plants. The small pink or white flowers give way to edible, shiny, dark red berries Peter Long that ripen in late August or September. This creeping evergreen The berries can be somewhat acidic gets its common name but sweeten dramatically after the from its paired, small, first frost. Berries can be eaten raw or sweet-smelling pink used in baking and for jams and jellies. flowers that hang from Peter Long slender Y-shaped stalks. However, Twinflower is perhaps more celebrated What’s the difference? for its scientific name, Mountain Cranberry (left) and Linnaea. This delicate Kinnikinnick (right) are low flower, the favourite of sprawling plants that form mats on the forest floor. 18th century Swedish Mountain Cranberry leaves botanist Carl Linnaeus, founder of the modern scientific are oval with notched tips, Peter Long naming system, was named for him. Twinflower grows a prominent midvein, in both forested areas and meadows, and can tolerate and rounded at both ends. Kinnikinnick has longer shade well. leaves that taper towards the stem. Its berries develop earlier and are orange-red compared to the soft burgundy-red of the Mountain Cranberry. Peter Long 6 7 Pink Flowers Fireweed Peter Long Chamerion angustifolium | Evening Primrose family Prickly Rose This bright, showy plant is Yukon’s Rosa acicularis | Rose family territorial flower. Called “Fireweed” because of its sudden abundance This small shrub has in areas cleared by forest fire, prickly stems and large, this plant readily colonizes fragrant pink, solitary roadsides, meadows and gravel flowers, and is wide- bars. In forests, plants can often be spread at low to seen in their much less conspicuous medium elevations non-flowering form, waiting for throughout Yukon. fire to clear out the shading trees. Late in the summer, Every part of the Fireweed plant flowers become large is edible, and the nectar-rich flowers rosehips that are edible and high in produce high-grade honey. vitamin C. Before eating rosehips, open them and discard the spiny seeds.