Twinflower

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Twinflower

Linnaea borealis, commonly known as Twinflower (sometimes written twin flower) is a woodland subshrub

Subshrub

A subshrub is a horticultural rather than strictly botany category of woody perennial plant. It is distinguished from a shrub by its ground-hugging stems and lower height, with overwintering perennial woody growth typically less than 10–20 cm tall, or by being only weakly woody and/or persisting only for a few years....
, treated either in the family Caprifoliaceae

Caprifoliaceae

The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade consisting of about 800 dicotyledonous flowering plants, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution; centres of diversity are found in eastern North America and eastern Asia, while they are absent in tropical and southern Africa....
, or sometimes in its own family Linnaeaceae. The stems are slender, pubescent and prostrate, growing to 20-40 cm

Centimetre

A centimetre is a Units of measurement of length in the metric system, equal to one hundredth of a metre, which is the current International System of Units SI base unit of length....
long, with opposite evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
rounded oval leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
3-10 mm

Millimetre

The millimetre is a Units of measurement of length in the metric system, equal to one thousandth of a metre, which is the current International System of Units SI base unit of length....
long and 2-7 mm broad. The flowering stems curve erect, to 4-8 cm tall, leafless except at the base; the flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are paired, pendulous, 7-12 mm long, pale pink with a five-lobed corolla.

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Encyclopedia

Linnaea borealis, commonly known as Twinflower (sometimes written twin flower) is a woodland subshrub

Subshrub

Caprifoliaceae

Centimetre

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
rounded oval leaves

Leaf

Millimetre

Flower

Circumpolar

The term circumpolar may refer to:* circumpolar navigation: to travel the world "vertically" traversing both of the poles* the Antarctic Circumpolar Current...
distribution in moist subarctic to cool temperate forest

Forest

File:Stara planina suma.jpgA forest is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on various criteria....
s, extending further south at high altitudes in mountain

Mountain

A mountain is a landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill....
s, in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
south to the Alps

Alps

The Alps is the name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
, in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
south to northern Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, and North America south to northern California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
and Arizona

Arizona

The State of Arizona is a U.S. state located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona....
in the west, and Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
in the Appalachian Mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains or , often called the Appalachians, are a vast mountain range in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians....
in the east.

In Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
, the twinflower grows in mainly open pine

Pine

Pines are Pinophyta trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species....
woodlands in Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
and northernmost England

England

Forester

A forester is a person who practices forestry, the science and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including timber harvesting, ecological restoration and management of protected areas....
s consider this plant to be an indicator species

Indicator species

An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment. For example, a species may delineate an ecoregion or indicate an Environmental science such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change....
of ancient woodland

Ancient woodland

?Ancient Woodland? is a term used in the United Kingdom to refer specifically to woodland dating back to 1600 or before in England and Wales . Before this, planting of new woodland was uncommon, so a wood present in 1600 was likely to have developed naturally....
s, often found in association with Creeping Lady's Tresses. It is listed as "nationally scarce". It is found in about 50 sites around the country, with most situated in the woods around the Cairngorms

Cairngorms

The Cairngorms are a mountain range in the eastern Scottish Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain of the same name - Cairn Gorm....
; the southernmost locations are four sites in Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is a Counties of England in the North East England of England. The non-metropolitan counties of England of Northumberland borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of Nort...
and one in County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of Historic counties of England in North East England England. The county town is Durham.The largest settlement in the county is the town of Darlington....
. The sparseness of the sites is responsible for the continued decline of the flower in the country.

The twinflower is the only species in its genus, but there are three recognised subspecies:

Linnaea borealis subsp. borealis - Europe
Linnaea borealis subsp. americana - North America
Linnaea borealis subsp. longiflora - Asia

Naming

Its common name is from the paired flowers. It is one of the few species to be named after Carolus Linnaeus

Carolus Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus was a Sweden botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern alpha taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology....
. It was Linnaeus' favourite plant; and when a young man he named this small twin flower "Linnæa", in his early papers. However, later in the manuskript Systema Naturae

Systema Naturae

The book Systema Naturae was one of the major works of the Sweden botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. Its full title is Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis or translated: "System of nature through the three kingdoms of...
he replaced it with "Rudbeckia".

The final naming was formally made by Linnaeus' teacher Jan Frederik Gronovius

Jan Frederik Gronovius

Jan Frederik Gronovius was a Netherlands botanist notable as a patron of Carolus Linnaeus.John Clayton , a plant collector in Virginia sent him many specimens, as well as manuscript descriptions, in the 1730s....
, and Linnaeus added borealis, meaning Nordic. Linnaeus took this flower as his own personal symbol when he was raised to the Swedish nobility in 1757. Of it, Linnaeus said "Linnaea was named by the celebrated Gronovius and is a plant of Lapland, lowly, insignificant, disregarded, flowering but for a brief time - from Linnaeus, who resembles it".

The flower is the provincial emblem of Småland

Småland

is a historical Provinces of Sweden in southern Sweden.Sm?land borders Blekinge, Scania or Sk?ne, Halland, V?sterg?tland, ?sterg?tland and the island ?land in the Baltic Sea....
in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
, Linnaeus' home province. The twinflower has given its name to the popular Swedish feminine given name Linnéa or Linnea .

Twinflower

Naming

Gallery