Alpine bistort

Tags: Flowers Description: Alpine bistort is one of our commonest mountain plants. The leaves are oblong with long leaf stalks. It has a long flower spike with white-pink flowers at the top and masses of small bulbils below. These bulbils are vegetative buds, all of which can grow into new plants, clones of the mother plant. The bulbils can in fact begin to sprout while still attached to the mother plant, so that they are finished little plants that fall to the ground and can take root straight away. Use: The bulbils are nutritious and are eaten by ptarmigan, reindeer and hare alike. We humans can eat them too. They taste a little like nuts and are delicious on egg dishes or scattered over your oat porridge. Over time both the bulbils and the roots have been used as a dietary supplement. Habitat type: Mountains, Svalbard Edible: Yes Written by: Lærke Stewart

, via Wikimedia Commons](Harerug/Harerug.jpg)

Alpine bistort. Photo: Jörg Hempel, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons