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Plants of Alone · № 34

Richardson Mountains Plant Field Guide

Plants of the Richardson Mountains, NWT — mountain tundra and boreal trees, edibles, toxics and traditional-use species.

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Richardson Mountains Plant Field Guide cover№ 34
Region
Richardson Mountains, NWT
Country
Canada
Continent
North America
Season
Alone filming environment
File size
791 KB(0.8 MB)
Read onlineDownload PDFPlan a trip to Richardson Mountains, NWT

About this region

Arctic mountain — long cold winters, brief cool summers, high wind exposure and shallow soils.

The Richardson Mountains, straddling the Yukon–NWT border, are a low, unglaciated Arctic range where boreal taiga fades into mountain tundra. Spruce forest hugs the valley bottoms and dwarf shrubs dominate everything else.

Foraging here is a berries-and-greens affair — crowberry, blueberry, cloudberry, mountain sorrel — with willow and dwarf birch providing much of the usable woody material. Vegetation is slow-growing; harvest lightly.

Habitats

  • Valley-bottom white spruce

    Sheltered river corridors with the tallest trees in the range.

  • Dwarf birch–willow tundra

    Waist-high shrub tundra with lichens, sedges, and berry mats.

  • Alpine fellfield

    Sparse cushion plants and lichens on wind-scoured stony ridges.

  • Wet sedge meadows

    Cotton grass, sedges, and small herb communities in seepage zones.

Notable species

  • White sprucePicea glauca

    Tree

  • Dwarf birchBetula glandulosa

    Material

  • Arctic willowSalix spp.

    Material

  • CrowberryEmpetrum nigrum

    Edible

  • CloudberryRubus chamaemorus

    Edible

  • Mountain sorrelOxyria digyna

    Edible

  • Northern monkshoodAconitum delphiniifolium

    Toxic

Topics

  • richardson mountains
  • northwest territories
  • mountain tundra
  • alpine
  • dwarf birch
  • willow

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