Diapensia lapponica

The name Diapensia lapponica was given by Linnaeus to designate a flower found in Lapland (Lapponia > adj. lapponicus), where he traveled early in his career. Linnaeus's book about the flora of Lapland has been called "the first proto-modern flora".^[9] However, sources disagree on how Linnaeus might have derived the genus name, Diapensia. Gray states that the term was derived from the ancient Greek name of the sanicle,^[10] a very different looking flower, and opined that the term was "of obscure meaning [and] strangely applied . . . to this boreal plant." Webster's also reflects uncertainty stating the term is "New Latin, perhaps irregular from Greek dia pente by fives + New Latin -ia; from the five-leaved calyx",^[11] a description that would apply to thousands of flowering plants. The Encyclopaedia Londinensis of John Wilkes suggested that term is from Greek,"deeply grieving or mourning; probably from its situation".^[12]

In Britain, Diapensia is found only at a single site near Glenfinnan in Lochaber, the species' most southerly site in Europe. Here, the species occurs on acidic soil among stones on the ridge between the summit of Sgùrr an Utha and the adjoining hill called Fraoch-bheinn, at 760–780 metres (2,490–2,560 ft) above sea-level. Its total extent at this site is less than 5,000 square metres (1.2 acres). A total of 1,200 clumps or mats have been counted, and monitoring since 1980 has not detected any change in this population.

The discovery of Diapensia took place in July 1951; C. F. Tebbutt, a birdwatcher, found the plant, recognising it as "something different".^[13] Diapensia was one of a trio of Arctic plants discovered in Scotland in the early 1950s. Although no new species to Britain had been discovered in Scotland since Victorian times, in 1950, the Arctic plant Koenigia islandica had been found on the Isle of Skye, and in 1952, Artemisia norvegica was found on Cùl Mòr.^[14] A photograph of the plant by Robert Moyes Adam taken on 14 June 1952 (soon after the initial discovery) is held by the St Andrews University Library.^[15]

It flowers at this site in May or June, the exact time varying from year to year. Some sources state that the species is found at a second site,^[16][17] but recent sources state that this is not the case.^[18][19]

The plant is listed in the 3rd edition of the British vascular plant Red Data Book^[18] as vulnerable. It is also protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.