Dryas octopetala, the mountain avens, white dryas or white dryad, is native to Canada and the USA. It is the official territorial flower of the Northwest Territories and the national flower of Iceland. It also has a widespread occurrence throughout the entire Arctic, as well as the mountains of Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Great Britain and Ireland.  

The easy to grow alpine plants form mats of white flowers in spring and summer, atop thick clusters of dark evergreen leaves with fuzzy undersides. The plants form large colonies and make an excellent groundcover. They grow well in well-drained soil or near rocky terrain.

It grows in dry localities where snow melts early, on gravel and rocky barrens, forming a distinct heath community on calcareous soils. 

The flowers of Mountain avens track the movement of the sun across the sky during the day, a phenomenon called heliotropism. 

Dryas octopetala is important for paleoclimatology because its durable pollen and macrofossils serve as a reliable biological indicator of abrupt, widespread, cold, arctic-alpine climate conditions in past ecosystems. This tough, cold-loving plant thrives in barren, low-temperature environments and its durable pollen and fossils are well preserved in sediment and ice cores. The widespread presence (and subsequent disappearance) of Dryas fossils in areas that were otherwise warming signals rapid, significant climate reversals to near-glacial conditions, which is why major abrupt cooling events, such as the Older Dryas and the Younger Dryas, are named after it. By studying the distribution and abundance of Dryas remains, scientists can reconstruct past temperature shifts and the rate of climate change. 

Type: Hardy perennial

Hardiness zone: 2-9

Height: 4", 10cm

Location: Sun

Seeds per packet: 20