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| What is a Wildflower? |
| It’s extremely difficult to put a true definition on what a wildflower is. Technically speaking trees, grass and sedges could all be considered a wildflower. Each one has flowers for the purpose of producing seeds. Some are bright and colourful others are small and of similar colour to the plant itself. The only way to really distinguish a wildflower from other flowering plants is that they are not trees and they have larger, more eye-catching blooms. Flowers like mammals need a male and female to produce seed for reproduction. Most flowers contain male parts called stamens. These are what produce pollen. A flower will also contain at lease one female part called the pistil. The pistil is what receives the pollen from the same or another flower. Once the pollen is in contact with the ovules at the base of the pistil the plant is then pollinated. If the pollen is that of the same flower it is then “self-pollinated”. If the pollen is from another plant it is then “cross-pollinated”. Some flowers are required to be cross-pollinated because the pollen from the same flower is genetically incompatible. |
| Wildflowers in Algonquin Highlands Region |
| Algonquin Highland Region is vastly covered in different species of wildflowers. Because Algonquin Highlands is between the coniferous forests in the north and the hardwood forest in the south there is a mixture of both types of tree life. This gives the region a unique ability to offer a variety of flowers from both the northern forests and more southern forests. With the introduction of road ways and clear cut areas, the area has yet another new habitat for these flowers. There are the most common Algonquin Highlands wildflowers on this site. They are divided in to four habitats: coniferous forests, hardwood forests, roadsides, and finally wetlands (including bogs, shorelines and open water). You recognize some, or you can get to know new ones. |
| Wildflower Names |
| The English and Latin names used in this site follow those given in A Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Algonquin Provincial Park, 1998, by Crins, Blaney, and Brunton and the French names are those given in Flore Laurentienne, 1964, by Marie-Victorin. Please remember that it is an offence to pick wildflowers in any provincial park. If you leave them where they are, they can be there for the next person to enjoy. |
| wildflowers of: clearings deciduous forest evergreen forest water's edge |
