Bulletin - Summer 1979 - North American Rock Garden Society

what a wealth of plants are everywhereunderfoot. Some are bound to be crushedas we walk along.Eagle Summit is a place of extremes.I have seldom been more uncomfortablefrom the heat than here. On anotherday I saw it raining harder than Ihave ever seen it rain before or sincein Alaska. We could not see at allthrough the summer downpour and hadto stop driving for half an hour untilthe torrent lessened somewhat. Also,I have seen more vicious mosquitoesper square inch on Eagle Summit thananywhere else, yet it is not always"buggy." In fact, most times I havefound it pleasantly bug free. One summerwe arrived at the Summit to findvirtually no plants showing. It had beenan exceedingly dry season and everythingseemed to be dead. However, thenext summer the myriads of plants hadgrown and blossomed as usual. But letus see what plants are to be found inthis area which includes both TwelvemileSummit and Eagle Summit.The lowly saxifragas are said to beour basic rock garden plant. There arenearly twenty saxifraga species in theneighborhood. This is the first placeI ever saw Rhododendron lapponicum.If it isn't its flowering season you mayhave difficulty finding it, but it isthere. There are also perhaps ten speciesof that intriguing little shrublet, salix.Even though Silene acaulis is a rathercommon alpine plant, it is a strikingone, to be sure, and there is plentyof it here. Its broad bright greencushions with rosy purple flowers areseen on all sides. It is too bad thatLloydia serotina is not a more imposingplant because there are many of theselittle lilies. Polygonum bistorta standsout with its elegant plumes of pink.There are a couple of claytonias andstellaria, too, in variety. Oxyria digynawith its oddly shaped leaves is abundant.Anemones, AA. richardsonii,drummondii, parviflora and narcissifloracan be noted all around.Many varieties of minuartia,arenaria, melandrium are also foundin this area. The strange little blueflowers of Corydalis pauciflora are inevidence here and there and we mustnot overlook Papaver macounii withits gay yellow flowers dancing in themountain breeze. Parrya nudicaulis isan attractive plant and there are severalcardamines, including the appealing C.purpurea. We shall also see Sedumrosea (what Alaskan rock garden iscomplete without it?) and about adozen species of draba. C o r n u scanadensis is manifest, of course, asit is over so much of Alaska. Thelegumes are certainly well representedin the region. Here are six oxytropis,Lupinus arcticus, six astragalus andtwo hedysarum.In peaty pockets or along the fewstreams you may come across Violaepipsila, and V. biflora can be foundon some of the slopes. Several nicepotentillas make their homes in thesemountains and some rubus and vacciniumdo well in the surrounding area.Dryas octopetala is interspersed withD. integrifolia, and Geum rossii is oneof the more winsome plants to be foundon the Summit. Alaska's state flower,Myosotis alpestris is obviously present.A related plant, Eritrichium aretioides,is the jewel of the natural flower gardenon Eagle Summit and a real jewel itis. Androsace chamaejasme is anothergem and it is here in great abundance.I have heard that both Cypripediumguttatum and C. passerinum are in thearea but I have not seen them. Douglasiagormani and arctica are supposedto be up here, too, but I have notseen them either.143