Alaska’s Tough Wild Flowers

By Keri Dearborn
Photos by the author and Bud Lehnhausen

These plants have surprising tricks that help them survive.

Alaska is known for dogsleds, polar bears, and ice. But it is also the home of some unusual wild flowers.

Plants have to be tough to live in Alaska. Many parts of the state have long, freezing winters and short, cool summers. Most plants could not live in these places.

But some plants can grow there because they have tricks for living in this climate. Here are three of those survivors.

Mountain Harebell
This flower grows on rocky mountains.
There are no big plants to protect it from strong winds. So the mountain harebell grows close to the ground. Down there, he flower is safe.

In Alaska, the long days of summer give lots of sunlight. But this growing season is short. To survive, the mountain harebell stays small. It grows fast, with only one flower. Then it quickly makes seeds.

Kamchatka Lily

The Kamchatka lily has petals the color of dark chocolate. Because of its color, some people call it the chocolate lily. But this candy-colored flower does not smell sweet. It smells like animal droppings.

People don’t like this smell, but it helps the flower. To make its seeds, the plant needs to have its pollen carried from one flower to another.
Bees do this job for many kinds of plants. The bees fly from plant to plant to get the nectar and pollen from the flowers. These insects spread some of the pollen as they work.

But Alaska is too cold for most bees. So the chocolate lily tricks other insects into carrying its pollen. It makes a smell that attracts flies and beetles. These insects look for droppings. They follow the smell to the chocolate lilies. So they end up spreading the flowers’ pollen while they hunt.

Yellow Pond Lily
Many areas of Alaska are dotted with ponds and small lakes. The yellow pond lily puts its roots down into the mud at the bottom of these waters. When the pond freezes over, the warmer water and mud under the ice keep the lily’s roots from freezing.

When the ice melts in the spring, the plants grow up through the water. Their leaves and sunny yellow flowers float on the surface. People can eat these roots, and the seeds in the flowers can be popped like popcorn.

These three wild flowers are unusual. Some of Alaska’s wild flowers are more common, such as the dandelion and the forget-me-not. But all of these plants have one important thing in common: Each of them has a way to live and grow in the harsh climate of Alaska.