Nature Contained

It’s cold today. -9 with the wind chill here in Four Corners. I am so glad that we don’t have tropical plants to take care of in a greenhouse. Listening to NPR this morning I heard that its -55.9 degrees F on Mt. Washington. How can the poor little dwarf cinquefoil (Potentilla robbinsiana) survive? The dwarf cinquefoil or Robbins’ cinquefoil is a small, almost stemless alpine perennial found only on the cold slopes of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The cinquefoil grows only in areas where there are extreme winds which blow significant snow cover over its rocky soil. Average winter temperatures in its growing climate hover around 0 with peak gusts consistently around 150 mph.

Besides its habitat, the cinquefoil has a few other fun quirks. The plant is apomictic which means the plant makes seeds without fertilization; in the case of the dwarf cinquefoil, it means each seedling is an exact genetic replica of its parent.

The AMC and New England Wildflower Society have done a lot to help preserve this alpine plant and in 2002, the Robbins’ cinquefoil was taken off the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Plants. There are now over 14,000 plants which is a huge increase from the 3,700 plants which existed prior to receiving protection in 1980.