The twist

A macro of a Yellow Mountain Avens flower (Dryas drummondii) after it has gone to seed. I always love to see the long, tight twist of fine, silvery hairs. Photographed at Cobble Flats, Kananaskis, on 12th July.

"Native across Canada and Oregon to Montana. Uncommon. Stems, prostrate and much branched forming a mat (actually a woody shrub). Leaves, alternate; elliptic to oblong, 1.5-3cm long, edge coarsely scalloped, rounded at tip, wedge-shaped at base, leathery, strongly wrinkled surface, hairless or slightly white woolly below. Flowers, solitary on woolly stalks, 5-25cm high in fruit; 8-10 pale yellow petals, strongly ascending; flowerhead and sepals covered with black, gland-tipped hairs; June-August. Fruit, numerous, with much elongated feathery styles, spirally twisted together when immature or in damp weather. Habitat: gravelly slopes, river bars and roadsides".

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