About Pedicularis lapponica L.
Pedicularis lapponica L. is a perennial species that may occasionally be biennial. It grows from a creeping rootstock with long, slender rhizomes, producing an unbranched stem, very rarely branched, that reaches 10–25 cm in height. No basal leaf rosette forms on this plant. Its stem leaves are narrow, elongated, and compound, with toothed leaf segments; lower stem leaves grow on long petioles. The inflorescence is capitate. The corolla grows up to 2 centimeters long, and is typically milk white, surrounded by toothed sepals. The fruit is a flat, beaked capsule that measures 8–13 millimetres, 0.31–0.51 inches, long. Compared to Pedicularis lanata, populations of P. lapponica at Disko, West Greenland have a lower outcrossing capacity in their breeding system and lower morphological variation. This species is widely distributed across arctic and boreal zones of the northern hemisphere. In Greenland, it occurs in West Greenland between 62°N and 72°30’N, and in East Greenland between 69°N and Bessel Fjord at 75°58'N. Pedicularis lapponica is hemiparasitic on multiple host species, and grows in arctic to alpine tundras, heathlands, moist hummocky tundras, and dwarf shrub heath.
