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Arctic starflower

Arctic starflower

Lysimachia europaea

Identify the arctic starflower from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Very common

Arctic starflower is a tiny, delicate forest-floor plant with a striking, star-shaped white flower. It grows across northern Europe and Asia and also in northern North America. It often forms loose patches in light, mossy woods.

Did you know?

  • Its flower most often has seven petals — a rare number in the plant world.
  • It spreads by long creeping underground stems, so many shoots can belong to the same plant.

About the species

Identification

A small plant 5–20 cm tall that comes back each year. The stem is slender, smooth and usually unbranched. Most leaves form a ring near the top, pointing outwards; they are narrow to egg-shaped and uneven in size, with only a few small leaves lower down or none. One or two thin-stalked flowers sit at the tip: starry, white (sometimes pale pink), with usually seven pointed petals (sometimes 5–9). The fruit is a tiny round bluish-grey case. The leaf ring and seven-pointed star flower make it easy to recognise. Flowers in Finland from May to July.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

heath forest, herb-rich forest

Flowering

May–Jul

About the habitat

Lives in dry to moist coniferous and mixed forests, and also near wetlands such as swamps and fens. You can find it in forest meadows, along paths and roads, and on open heaths above the tree line. Common throughout the country.

Sources

Photo: FredrikLähnn, Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trientalis europaea10.JPG

Text: Pinkka: Yläkoulun Pinkka - Tuore kangasmetsä, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38676

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Metsät: kuivahkot kankaat, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38676

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mets%C3%A4t%C3%A4hti

See also