ELEPHANTHEAD 



Pedicularis groenlandica Retz 



Elephanthead loves wet meadows and the borders of lakes and 

 streams. It prefers the region about timberline, and in sedgy upland 

 swampy places it supplies masses of rich color. Flowers, stems, and 

 leaves are often of almost the same tone. The curious flower resembles 

 an elephants head with the trunk raised. 



This plant and a similar one growing in California have been re- 

 ferred by a few botanists to a distinct genus, appropriately named 

 Elephantella, but the two species agree essentially in their flower 

 structure with other members of the genus Pedicularis. 



This representative member of the Figwort Family is found in 

 Greenland and Labrador, and from the mountains of New Mexico 

 and California northward to Alaska. 



It grew in many places in the Ptarmigan Valley, fifteen miles by 

 trail north from Lake Louise, Alberta, at an altitude of 6,000 feet, 

 where this specimen was obtained. 



plate 373 



