Botanical atlas

Mountain Avens

Dryas octopetala

Long before it was a garden curiosity, mountain avens was a familiar plant to the peoples who lived alongside it across the Arctic and subarctic, from Inuit communities in the north to Sami herders in Scandinavia. Its low, leathery leaves were gathered and steeped into a mild tea used traditionally to settle the stomach after a heavy meal of meat or fish. The plant's sheer toughness, holding its evergreen leaves through brutal winters and blooming again the moment the snow retreats, made it a quiet emblem of endurance in places where little else could survive. Today it carries that honor formally: it is the territorial flower of Canada's Northwest Territories and the national flower of Iceland, where it is known as holtasóley.

Safety.

No toxicity is documented for mountain avens, it just hasn't been closely studied, so treat it as a plant with a light traditional use rather than a proven remedy.