Chamerion angustifolium (Fireweed) - photos and description
General: Upright plants usually with a single stem, often growing in large colonies. Stems sparingly hairy with short hairs. This plant is the floral emblem of the Yukon territory.
Flowers: Flowers are pink to magenta, 4-petaled, and grow in a long raceme. Flowers with 8 stamens and a deeply cleft stigma. We measured a flower at 2.5 cm in diameter.
Leaves: Leaves are alternate, linear to linear-lanceolate, pale green on the undersides. Typical leaf 17.5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 150 cm, I measured plants to 95 cm tall.
Habitat: Edges of woods, roadsides, and often on disturbed soil, across the boreal forest and parklands.
Abundance: Common.
Origin: Native.
Synonym: Listed in some of the field guides we use as Epilobium angustifolium.
When and where photographed: Took the above photos June 27th near Reindeer Lake, 800 km north of Regina, SK, July 21st heavy forest in Duck Mountain provincial park about 300 km northeast of Regina, SK, and July 23rd Pasquia Provincial Forest, about 425 km northeast of our home in Regina, SK.