Linnaea borealis L.
twinflower
Caprifoliaceae (Valerian family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
twinflower
Caprifoliaceae (Valerian family)
Introduction to Vascular Plants
SUBTAXA PRESENT IN BC
Species Information
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.
Ecology
Ecological Framework for Linnaea 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)
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 |
||
|
Avg |
Min |
Max |
|
| Elevation
(metres) |
982 | 0 | 2500 |
| Slope
Gradient (%) |
18 | -2 | 262 |
|
Aspect (degrees) |
221 | 0 | 360 |
| Soil
Moisture Regime (SMR) [0 - very xeric; 4 - mesic; 8 - hydric] |
3 | 0 | 8 |
| Modal
Nutrient Regime
Class |
C | ||
| #
of field plots species was recorded in: |
15579 | ||
| Modal
BEC Zone Class |
ICH | ||
|
All BEC Zones (# of stations/zone) species was recorded in |
AT(2), BWBS(1567), CDF(86), CWH(1392), ESSF(1248), ICH(3302), IDF(1495), MH(59), MS(1857), PP(13), SBPS(523), SBS(2842), SWB(223) | ||
|
Source:
Klinkenberg 2013
|
|||
Habitat and 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.Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Linnaea americana Forbes
Linnaea borealis var. americana (Forbes) Rehder