I have not been able to identify this yellow flower taken near the Colville River on the North Slope of Alaska. Can any of you assist me on this. If I can get the family I can almost always identify my flowers either on the Internet (using the images feature), or in my library of old flower books. Thank you
Dickie you might try contacting the Alpine Garden Club of B.C. @ http://www.agc-bc.ca/ They have Alaskan members who may be able to identify this. Pretty little thing isn't it.
Thank you abgardner. I used your suggestion and did a Google Image search for Draba. (Wow! There are a lot of them.) At swcoloradowildflowers WEB site I found several pictures that could easily be my flower fully opened. My flower is up on the Arctic and it is only late June so all the flowers were not fully opened at the time. At this point I am going call it a Golden Draba. Before commiting myself complete I will research it a bit farther. I'll put a post here when I find something new or give up looking any farther. Dickie
Thank you lhuget and abgardner. With your assistance and the aid of the Internet I used the information and looked through Flora of Alaska by J. P. Anderson (1962). (I now - it's and old book.) I could never find any reference that placed Golden Draba as far north as Canada even. But Flora of Alaska describes Draba exaltata very much like my flower. And he says Seward Peninsula, (just 100 miles westward from where I took the picture) and Arctic Coast. I believe the flower is the Draba exaltata
Thanks Dickie for sharing. It sure seems the drabas are hard to specifically identify as there many different varieties? of the "draba aurea". The pictures I've found don't have the same flower structure that your picture showed. I'd luv to exchange for seed if you return to collect seed. Thanks. Any one else have experience with draba exulta/aurea please share. Thanks. Les
E.H. Moss' Flora of Alberta has Draba aurea occurring here in Alberta, and also in Alaska. The Canadian distribution is further defined as including the Yukon, SW Mackenzie District, NW Saskatchewan (and south to Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado), the Great Lakes, Quebec and New Brunswick; the range also extends to Asia and Greenland. I wasn't entirely certain, looking at the photo, whether the roundish, shiny leaves belong to the flowering stem. Do they? D. aurea is said in this source to have 3-30 stem leaves; the photo appears to show 3 cauline leaves... (Note: I'm not very familiar with Drabas at all... just throwing out some ideas.)
In reply to your question abgardeneer, the out-of-focus leaves do indeed belong to the flowering stem. I try hard to always get some sort of picture showing the whole plant or at least the leaves and the flower in consecutive pictures so I can identify them. Unfortunately, I am not always successful and that is when I come to you folks for help. The picture of the leaves for this flower was entirely too dark. (I have now gone digital so no longer have to wait for film developement to see if I got it or not.) I chose the Draba exaltata because I found 3 images on the Internet that showed this Draba with the cauline basal leaves.
Les I would love nothing better than to make another trip later in the year and gather some seed, but I don't see that possibility any time soon. This picture was taken in late June, the earliest we could get there because of spring breakup and the weather conditions. We canoed on the Colville River for 6 weeks. It was a 350-mile flight to get to the start and a 70-mile flight at the end of the trip. If I ever do find that same flower along the Dalton Highway, (to the Prudhoe Bay oil fields), I will mark it's location and return for seed. Dickie
Thanks Dickie. I'm going to keep my out for this in Kananaskis country although I've had zero luck finding draba kananaskis which is my real mission. Les
