Wild Flowers

Churchill is unique for the fact that it has three ecosystems sitting side by side. First, there is the maritime ecosystem with its salt water/salt tolerant plants such as the Sandwort, which often grows just feet away from the ocean water and, for the author, also makes a great salad. Around the town of Churchill is the vast green tundra ecosystem that has many similarities to the alpine climates of the Rocky Mountains. Here you will find the Arctic Aven also known as the White Mountain Aven, Arctic Artica, Bog Rosemary, the Butterwort, which is Churchill's insect eating plant, as well as Purple Saxifrage, hiding amongst the rocky crags along the Hudson Bay. As you move around the tundra and into the Boreal Forest, which has a more temperate climate, you will find many of Churchill's wild edible berries such as the Wild Strawberry, as well as the Red Current, Black Current, Bog Red Current, Dew Berry, Alpine Bear Berry, Low Bush Cranberry, Cloudberry, Crowberry, Low Bush Blueberry and Gooseberry. Visitors in the last two weeks of August usually get a good vitamin boost by eating the many delicious wild berries and mushrooms that are found. You will know whom your guide is at the lodge by carefully looking at his fingers in the month of August, as this is when the wild berry season is at its fullest, and his fingers are the bluest.

Labrador tea as well as Dwarf Labrador tea will be found on the tundra and also in the Boreal Forest. Many of these flowers have different blooming periods which, along with the stunted and wind cultured trees, makes the summer tundra look like a Japanese Bonzai garden. Our summer visitors will see the whales as well as this frenzy of wildflowers. First time visitors to Churchill have remarked at how lush and green this northern tundra is. It should be remembered that the sun at this time of year will rise up hours before you and will set some time after you have lied down for the night. The long days, as well as the short and wet growing season, maximizes the speed and efficiency of the wildflowers of Churchill. Local gardeners will often grow cabbages larger than a basketball. A green house business boasts of selling over 1000 pounds of fresh ripe tomatoes that are sold in local markets. As well, local wild berry preserves are sold to our visitors giving them a taste of the tundra to take home with them. Fall months will see the Lazy Bear Cafe offering wild berry deserts at the lodge. Fall colors come to Churchill in a crimson tide as the Alpine Bearberry, Low Bush Cranberry and the Low Bush Blueberry start to turn. Many of the Willow and Dwarf Birch bushes will turn a brilliant golden yellow color. This signals the end of summer and the beginning of what is known as the watchout season. This is when those towering carnivores, the polar bears, start moving into some of the local favorite berry picking areas. Perhaps they are less interested in the berries and more curious of the berry pickers.