Chamaenerion angustifolium
Fireweed
How do you recognise fireweed?
A tall herb, usually 50–150 cm high. The leaves are narrow and lance-shaped and spiral around the stem. Each flower has four purple-red petals and measures 2–3 cm across. After flowering, reddish-brown elongated pods are left along the stem.
What is it confused with?
Purple loosestrife has six petals and a square stem, and it grows on wet shores. The other willowherbs have distinctly smaller flowers with notched petals.
Where does fireweed grow, and when does it flower?
Fireweed grows all over the country in many kinds of places, above all roadsides, clearings, and burnt ground. It flowers in July and August, opening from the bottom of the spike upwards.
Can you collect it for a herbarium?
Fireweed is very common, but it grows tall, so take the top of the stem with its flowers for a herbarium.
Did you know?
Fireweed claims burnt or newly bared ground quickly, which is how it earned its English name. A single pod holds 300–400 seeds, and their white hairs carry them far on the wind.
Where does fireweed grow in Finland?
The map shows where the species has been recorded. Darker squares mean more observations.
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Observations: GBIF · Map: CARTO, OpenStreetMap
Sources: fi.wikipedia.org, mappa.fi
Identify plants with your phone
Linnea identifies a plant from a photo and tells you its name and its story. Every find takes its own numbered place in your herbarium, with the day and the town where you found it.
