Red Fireweed in Spruce Forest, Denali
Alaska
Common fireweed turns deep red at the end of summer in the understory of a spruce forest in Denali National Park. Fireweed leaves and stems flush red as the plant shuts down for the season, and in the boreal forest that color show runs for a couple of weeks before the first real snow. It is one of the earliest and most reliable signs of fall in interior Alaska.
The boreal understory around Denali gets very short windows of dramatic color compared to lower latitudes; when the red fireweed and the yellow birch and the green spruce all overlap, the forest floor has more going on than most visitors expect.
Red fireweed in spruce forest, Denali National Park, Alaska. Epilobium angustifolium. Photo © copyright by Carl Donohue.
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