“We drove into town on a gravel road though an immense wildflower garden full of purple lupine, scarlet lousewort, and golden poppies.” - Tom Walker

Between the months of June and August, the lush green ground cover of St. George is transformed into a vast carpet of wildflowers. On a typical hike one traverses through lush lowlands with ferns, cotton grass, willow, lupine and cloudberry and up to dryer ground where the lousewort, dogwood, Alaska Spring Beauty and Moss Campion reside. Rising to 1000 feet out of the Bering Sea, the High Bluffs of St. George have species of highland wildflowers as unique to the Pribilovian setting as the Unalaska Saxifrage and as ubiquitous to Alaska as the Mountain Forget-me-not. Locally consumed Petrushki and Skurvy Grass are found along the coastline. The wildflowers of St. George are astonishing whether you are an avid botanist or simply appreciate wildflowers. They are an integral part of your experience on St. George as you walk the road, hike the bluffs, listen to the Red-Legged Kittiwakes, or comb the shore.

Here are  some of the plants observed during a field trip between June 28-July 5th, 2005:
Pushki (Wild Celery), Chocolate Lilly, Coltsfoot, Long-stalked Starwort, Nootka Lupine, Wooly Lousewort, many varieties of moss and lichen, bog ferns, cotton grass species, thick patches of Cloudberry (Low-bush Salmonberry), Moss Campion, Few-flowered Corydalis, Mountain Forget-me-not, Tall Jacob’s Ladder, Nagoonberry, Pixie Eye Primrose, Alaska Spring Beauty, Thyme-leaf Saxifrage, buttercup species, One-flowered Cinquefoil, Arctic Poppy, Mountain Sorrel, Capitate Valerian, Dogwood, Arctic Sandwort, Brook Saxifrage, Unalaska Saxifrage, Rock Jasmine, Artemesia Globularia (wormwood), Northern Water Carpet, Netted Willow, Arctic Willow, Least Willow, Flowering Yarrow, Skurvy Grass and Petrushki.

For more information about St. George Island, please visit Starting Your Adventure or e-mail our local Tourism Coordinator.