Trientalis europaea
Trientalis europaea belongs to the Primrose family, Primulaceae. Its common name is Chickweed Wintergreen although it should be noted that it is neither a chickweed nor a wintergreen! It is a slender, erect perennial often between ten and twenty centimetres tall. It has a single whorl of hairless obovate to lanceolate leaves which are between two and eight centimetres long and situated at the top of the stem. The erect stems grow from an underground creeping rhizome. Arising from the top of the stem is one, sometimes two white almost star shaped flowers, the stalks of which are relatively long. The flowers measure approximately twelve to eighteen millimetres in diameter with the corolla displaying seven oval lobes. The frond is a globular capsule.
Flowering generally occurs between May and August though in more extreme regions such as northern Sweden, this may be restricted to a month or two nearer the height of summer.
General distribution of Trientalis europaea occurs in northern and central Europe in woods and on moors. It shows a preference for acidic soils. Trientalis europaea is quite rare in the British Isles . It is very rare in Suffolk , rare in northern England and in Scotland it is either found just occasionally or can be locally very common. Where found in Scottish woodland, the type will mostly be mossy pine woodland. This compares with northern Europe in which it is found more often in the oak or beech woodlands.
Trientalis Europaea, the Chickweed Wintergreen, was formerly esteemed in ointment as a wound salve, and an infusion taken internally for blood poisoning or eczema. The root is emetic.
Unfortunately, Trientalis does not appear in the raw data collected by the Linnaeus Experience. This could raise questions about the thoroughness of the data collection procedure and thus indicate a misrepresentation of the habitats observed. Alternatively, it should be remembered that the expedition lasted only ten days (minus travelling times) and not every habitat could be investigated at great length. In the given period, a large amount of data was collected and quadrats studied which contributed to the success of the expedition. It is just unfortunate, due to random sampling, that this species did not occur in the quadrats studied and it highlights a possible disadvantage of random sampling.
Notes were made regarding the location of Trientalis europaea during the expedition. It was commonly observed in the Betula pubescens woodland and is therefore associated with the corresponding species found in similar abundance such as the three main local vaccinia species, cornus seucica, broad leafed grasses and moss species such as Hylocomium splendens, Polytrichon commune and Pleurozium sp.