Hi, Can anybody help me out with these plants? The pictures were taken on St. Paul Island, Alaska, in mid June this year. The first two are saxifrages, the third a Draba species and the last a yellow mustard species. 1. Saxifrage (Saxifraga rivularis?) 2. Saxifrage (Heartleaf saxifrage?) 3. Draba? 4. Mustard species? Thanks! Paalo
Great plants, and I'm envious of your opportunity to visit here. If no one replies sooner, I'll see what I can do with our book resources at the Garden when I return to the office in ten days or so.
Daniel, thank you. Looking forward to your suggestions. Andrey, I think you may be correct. It doesn't look like S. rivularis, which grows less densely (at least in Norway).
I like Saxifraga bracteata for the first. Micranthes nelsoniana for the second? In Hulten's Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories, he recognizes five subspecies of Saxifraga punctata, of which Saxifraga punctata subsp. nelsoniana is one. SaxBase shows 9 varieties of Micranthes nelsoniana. Not finding a good match for 3. For 4, look into Draba hyperborea. An older synonym for this was Cochlearia spathulata - a reference to the spathulate leaves of the taxon. It's the only one that really jumps out at me from the illustrations in Hulten.
Thank you, Daniel! I agree, and ended up with the same names for these three species. For the last one, I will use a plant list from 1899! to narrow it down. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924000680342/cu31924000680342_djvu.txt This book, called "A list of the plants of the Pribilof Islands", was written by James M. Macoun, and the electronic version has been made public by Cornell University Library. It lists 184 species found on the Pribilof Islands, and although the names are old, it can be used to home in on the most possible species. Paalo
That was one of the two species I considered for it as well, but, as you know, images for comparison are lacking. It is very cute, though.
