How to Grow and Care for Mountain avens

Hooker's mountain-avens (Dryas octopetala) is the national flower of Iceland and the official flower of the Canadian Northwest Territories. It makes an excellent groundcover for areas that experience extreme temperature fluctuations, such as north-facing mountain slopes and craggy rock ledges. Pollen from this plant has been dated as far back as the Younger Dryas period. In fact, the glacial time periods now referred to as the "Dryas octopetala periods" are named specifically for the hooker's mountain-avens pollen that was so common.

Yellow mountain-avens is a slow-growing, mat-forming perennial. Scottish naturalist Thomas Drummond gave the plant its name. This evergreen blooms during the summer and is used for path edges and rock gardens. It is a sun lover noted for its feathery silver-colored seed heads that may be dried for long-lasting flower arrangements.

Hooker's mountain-avens 'Minor' is a hybrid of mountain aven that grows to a 'minor' height of just 10 cm, much smaller than the 20 cm of its parent plant. This cold weather plant is a garden favorite because it produces ivory flowers with yellow centers during the summer months, growing well in most soils.

Entireleaf mountain-avens is a hardy, low-growing perennial with a preference for the cold, mountainous terrains of the Arctic and alpine regions. This plant features small, rounded leaves and a distinctive solitary white flower bearing a resemblance to a miniature rose, which blooms in summer. Its foliage is evergreen, tough, and leathery, an adaptation to its harsh environments. Entireleaf mountain-avens forms dense mats, stabilizing the fragile soil where it thrives.

The stems are woody, tortuous, with short, horizontal rooting branches. The leaves are glabrous above, densely white-tomentose beneath. The flowers are produced on stalks 3 to 10 cm long, and have eight creamy white petals - hence the specific epithet octopetala. The style is persistent on the fruit with white feathery hairs, functioning as a wind-dispersal agent.