Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Moor-king
Pedicularis sceptrum-carolinum
- Family: Figwort Family – Scrophulariaceae
- Height: 40–80 cm (ca. 15–30 in.)
- Flower: Irregular (zygomorphic), ca. 30 mm (1.2 in.) long. Corolla bilabiate, with a long tube, pale yellow, lower lip three-lobed with red margin. Sepals five, united. Stamens four. Pistil of two fused carpels. Inflorescence a terminal spike.
- Leaves: Basal rosette leaves short-stalked. Blade pinnately lobed (pinnatifid to pinnatisect), lobes toothed. Stem leaves absent, or a few small present near the base of the stem.
- Fruit: A brown, flattish capsule.
- Habitat: Margins of nutrient-poor lakes, rivers, and brooks, flooded meadows, seepage surfaces, grazed shores, boat harbours, pastures, ditches.
- Flowering time: July–August.
The moor king is a hairless, erect and stout, hemiparasitic perennial. It absorbs additional nutrition from the roots of neighbouring plants. In the mountain birch belt on fjelds, the moor king grows in damp waterside meadows and in mires. In the south it has declined, and is now a regionally endangered species.
