''Pedicularis lapponica'', the Lapland lousewort, is a perennial

hemiparasitic A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the family

Orobanchaceae Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family of mostly parasitic plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera (e.g., ''Pedicularis'', ''Rhinanthus'', ''Striga'') were formerly included in the ...

with yellow to creme coloured flowers.

Description

The plant has an unbranched (or very rarely branched) stem of 10–25 cm tall which grows from a creeping rootstock with long slender rhizomes. No rosette is present. Stem leaves are narrow, elongated, and compound with toothed sections, the lower on long petioles. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is capitate. The corolla is up to 2 centimeters long and is usually milk white. It is surrounded by toothed

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s. The fruit is a flat, beaked capsule 8–13 millimetres (0.31–0.51 in) long. Compared to ''P. lanata, P. lapponica'' has a breeding system with a lower capacity for outcrossing in West Greenland ( Disko) and less morphological variation. It is perennial (in some cases biennial).

Distribution

''Pedicularis lapponica'' is widely distributed on the northern hemisphere in the arctic and boreal zone. In Greenland it is found in West Greenland between 62°N and 72°30’N and in East Greenland between 69°N and Bessel Fjord, 75°58'N.

Habitat and ecology

''Pedicularis lapponica'' is hemiparasitic on a number of host species. It is found in arctic to alpine tundras, heathlands, moist hummocky tundras, and dwarf shrub heath.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q766281 lapponica Flora of Greenland