Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Twinflower
Linnaea borealis
Twinflower family (Linnaeaceae)

Twinflower often forms extensive mats with abundant pairs of dainty, narrow, nodding flowers lighting the air above the dark green foliage. Twinflower was a favorite flower of Carl Linnaeus, hence the Linnaea. Linnaeus was the Swedish scientist who founded the system still used in today's biological nomenclature, the two part name: (Linnaea) and specific epithet (borealis). "Borealis" means "of the north."


©2007 Walter Siegmund

Description

shrublet, 4-6" tall, with trailing stems to 5' long. Pairs of pink, funnel-shaped, nodding flowers. Plant often forms a carpet of trailing stems and flowers on the forest floor. A slender stem rises and splits to support 2 delicate flowers. is funnel-shaped, pink-to-lavender, 5-, with a hairy . leaves are bright green, , elliptical to round, with shallow along the outer margins.

Field Marks

Pair of small nodding vase-like flowers above leafy mat of bright green leaves.

© Al Schneider

An evergreen tree retains a large portion of its green leaves all year.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

throat -- The opening of a flower.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.