Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Alpine Bartsia
Bartsia alpina
- Family: Figwort Family – Scrophulariaceae
- Height: 10–30 cm (4–12 in.). Stem dark purple, hairy. Winter erect.
- Flower: Irregular (zygomorphic), 15–20 mm (0.6–0.8 in.) long. Petals four, united, corolla dark purple (rarely pale yellow), bilabiate, with long tube. Sepals four, united, calyx four-lobed. Subtending bracts of uppermost flowers dark purple. Stamens four. Pistil of two fused carpels. Flowers solitary in the axils of subtending bracts.
- Leaves: Opposite. Unstalked, ovate to elliptic, with round-toothed margins, dark green.
- Fruit: A dark brown, oval capsule, 10 mm (0.4 in.) long.
- Habitat: Damp alpine meadows, brooksides, and waterside bogs, margins of rapids, eutrophic fens and swamps.
- Flowering time: June–July.
The alpine bartsia is a glandular-hairy perennial that often turns blackish on drying. It is a hemiparasite, i.e. it absorbs additional nutrients from the roots of nearby plants. The alpine bartsia is a northern species. Its seeds need to be exposed to frost in order to germinate. The germination takes place in spring, and the development into a flowering individual takes four to five years. On mountains, the alpine bartsia grows on boggy brook margins. In Koillismaa it is a species of sloping eutrophic (often calcareous) fens and swamps, with a thin peat layer.
