E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Linnaea borealis subsp. borealis
twinflower
Caprifoliaceae (Valerian family)

Introduction to Vascular Plants

© Alfred Cook  Email the photographer   (Photo ID #8246)

E-Flora BC Static Map
Distribution of Linnaea borealis subsp. borealis
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Species Information

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General:
Evergreen, creeping, semiwoody herb or subshrub; stems long, slender, weakly rooting, thinly hairy and often also glandular, producing numerous short (less than 10 cm tall), more or less erect, leafy stems or branchlets with 2-4 pairs of leaves.
Leaves:
Opposite, simple, short-stalked, egg-shaped to nearly circular, with a few shallow teeth along the upper half, 7-25 mm long, 5-15 mm wide, leathery, dark green above, paler below, glabrous or the stalks and margins of the leaf bases often fringed with long hairs.
Flowers:
Inflorescence of nodding pairs of flowers on slender, erect, Y-shaped stalks that terminate the leafy branchlets; base of flowers cradled by two tiny bracts; corollas slenderly funnel-shaped, 9-16 mm long, pink to whitish, flaring above to 5 lobes, hairy in the throat; styles about as long as corollas, with a tiny knoblike stigma; stamens 4.
Fruits:
Dry 1-seeded achenes (nutlets), flanked by a pair of tiny glandular bracts.
Notes:
Two subspecies occur in BC:

1. Corollas 9-11 mm long, narrowly bell-shaped, flaring from within the calyces, tubes very short or sometimes absent................... ssp. borealis

1. Corollas 10-16 mm long, funnel-shaped, tubes about equalling or surpassing the calyces...................ssp. longiflora (Torr.) Hult.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Habitat / Range

Mesic forests in the lowland and montane zones; ssp. longiflora common throughout BC; ssp. borealis infrequent in extreme NW BC; ssp. borealis - circumboreal, N to AK and YT, ssp. longiflora - N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to IN, NM and CA.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Ecology

Ecological Framework for Linnaea borealis ssp. borealis

The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from
original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range.
(Updated August, 2013)

Site Information
Value / Class

Minimum

Average

Maximum

Elevation (metres) 1430 1430 1430
Slope Gradient (%) 50 50 50
Aspect (degrees)
[0 - N; 90 - E; 180 - S; 270 - W]
170 169 170
Soil Moisture Regime (SMR)
[0 - very xeric; 4 - mesic;
8 - hydric]
2 2 2
Modal Nutrient Regime
Class
Number of field plots
 species was recorded in:
1
Modal BEC Zone Class
MS
All BEC Zones (# of stations/zone) species was recorded in: MS(1)

Climate

The climate type for this species, as reported in the: "British Columbia plant species codes and selected attributes. Version 6 Database" (Meidinger et al. 2008), is not evaluated, unknown or variable.

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Photo Sources

General References