Wild Flowers & Plants of Northern Alberta

Boreal Forest

Wild Roses

Mountain Avens

Tall Fireweed

Anywhere along the roads in Northern Alberta you will encounter interesting vegetation. The northern forests are home to a variety of unique plants.  A guidebook to forest plants would be very useful.  Careful observation of the forest floor may reveal the dainty pink Fairy Slipper orchid, or one of the several bog orchids, in shaded moist areas. The roots of most orchids are very fragile and picking the flower can kill the plant, so we suggest that you capture their beauty on film and let them live and multiply.

If you enjoy the subtle colors and various shapes found in nature, you will enjoy searching for the different lichens found throughout the north.  Lichens are a combination of a fungus and algae living together.  They form crusty or thready looking growths that occur in large numbers on the forest floor and in the trees and shrubs. They have traditional uses for food and dyes. Extracts from the lichens are used as fixatives in perfumes and soaps.  Much lichen is sensitive to air pollution and can be used to monitor air quality. For the shutterbug, they provide infinite variety for photocomposition.

Several bug-eating plants live in the area. The sundew plant is found on peat hummocks in black spruce bogs.  Its dewdrop laced leafpads help it to attract and feed on mosquitoes, gnats and midges. Sundew sap contains an antibiotic and has been traditionally used to treat tuberculosis, asthma, bronchitis and coughs.  The pitcher plant also grows in the muskeg.  The leaves form a deep cup, trimmed with inward pointing bristles that help to trap insects in the water pool at its base.

A profusion of berries, both edible and inedible, can be found throughout the area. Saskatoons, raspberries and strawberries are found in open meadows and bush edges. Bush cranberries and currents grow under aspen and mixed wood stands. The bog cranberry, cloudberry, lingonberry and blueberry are found in the more acidic bogs beneath Black Spruce and Tamarack.