Dryas octopetala

[Lori S.]

Dryas octopetala is a very common and beautiful plant of alpine slopes in this area, and in addition, it has the delightful habit of repeated bloom through the season.  
It can also be grown fairly easily in the garden here (last photo)... why I bother with my relatively feeble effort, though, when I see them in natural splendour throughout our mountain hikes, I don't know!    Anyway, it is another point in its favour, as if it needed one!

[Todd Boland]

I don't grow this one...mainly because it would take up too much room in the rockery!  I do have our native D. integrifolia which is at least slower growing.

[David Sellars]

Lori:

We have the same issue with Dryas octopetala. It does not perform as well in our garden as in the mountains though some years are better than others with lots more flowers.  One of its endearing characteristics is that it roots easily from cuttings.  One day I will bring home a good specimen from the mountains and see if it does better than the garden variety.

[Hoy]

D. octopetala (reinrose = rose of reindeer) is the only dryas in Norway (in the mountains on calcareous soil) but in the gardens it is the hybrid D x suendermannii which is commonly grown (I have this one). Have tried the real thing but it is not as easy as the hybrid but the flowers of octopetala is better.

[Hoy]

Dryas octopetala commonly grows on exposed south-facing sites where the snow retreats early in the season. Later the flowering is more sporadic.

[Todd Boland]

I have the hybrid as well.  Drays drummondii is very rare in Newfoundland but D. integrifolia is quite common in limestone regions.  It is a smaller-sized version of D. octopetala.

[Lori S.]

And speaking of repeated bloom through the season...
From the garden:

[Lori S.]

Wild scenes with Dryas octopetala... ubiquitous and beautiful!
       

(I wonder if the first photo may actually be a hybrid with D. integrifolia?)

In the garden - an easy one to grow here:
 

[cohan]

Great plants and views, Lori! I see no reason to not grow beloved natives  in the garden- they can be seen more often and closely than in the wild!
Todd, we also have D integrifolia; at the  Columbia Icefields, I have see integrifolia, octopetala and  drummondii all growing together, I don't know if they cross..

[RickR]

I don't think my flowers ever get that big.  Quite easy to grow here in Minnesota, too,
 although it is also easily crowded out by taller growing plants.

[Hoy]

Beautiful, Lori! Both the plants and the landscape
Although this species is rather common in the mountains here I have never tried wild collected specimens in the garden neither from seed. I have a plant of garden origin at my cabin though (probably D x sundermannii, a cross between D. drummondii and octopetala) as it never sets seed.

D. octopetala is an early bloomer so I rarely do see it in flower where I usually walk but last summer I was at Finse where the snow lingers till August or longer. But no pictures with both Dryas and view!

[IMYoung]

Wonderful photos of this iconic plant for all SRGC members .....
your pictures show why it makes such a popular logo for us!



 

[cohan]

A few views from the area near the foot of the Athabasca Glacier, on the Icefileds Parkway in Alberta. There are large areas of Dryas here- octopetala and drummondii- integrifolia as well, I think, though in some I am not sure whether they are clear species or crosses;  This was one of the few times (only?) I was there at the right time to catch these in flower- this from June 26, 2010.
Looking more closely now, I see some of the leaves slightly recurved- is this normal variation for octopetala, or could it suggest crossing with integrifolia? If anyone feels any of these are integrifolia, let me know and I'll move them I've saved some pics that seem more clearly to be integrifolia for the new topic I started for that species..

[RickR]

Lori's quote from Flora of Alberta reads that D. octopetala has "somewhat revolute" leaf margins.  So I would think that questioning its species status would not be a concern. 

Is it common to have such multi-petaled flowers?  Really pretty - enough to make them stand out and enhance their beauty without taking too much away from simplicity, yet not enough to scream out man made hybrid.

[cohan]

Rick, I mostly questioned the species since other plants looking more or less like integrifolia could be growing right beside these more octopetala types.. no doubt some of them must be hybrids

I don't have wide enough experience to know how common the multipetalled flowers are.. they didn't strike me at the time as being unusual, just part of a variably flowered population (of a couple of species and hybrids...lol)..