Perennial Plant Profiles

Dryas octopetala, Mountain avens

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

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Genus Dryas
Species octopetala
Common Name Mountain avens 
Form herb
Habit mat forming
Origin Europe
Light sun
Moisture mesic 
Edible tea
Nitrogen Medium
Groundcover Yes


Native to Scandinavia Dryas octopetala (mountain avens, white dryas, and white dryad) is an Arctic–alpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is a small prostrate evergreen subshrub forming large colonies. The specific epithet octopetala derives from the Greek octo (eight) and petalon (petal), referring to the eight petals of the flower, an unusual number in the Rosaceae, where five is the normal number. 


The entire plant, harvested just before or at flowering time is astringent and digestive. An infusion is used as a stomach tonic, and also as a gargle for treating gingivitis and other disorders of the mouth and throat.  The plant makes a good ground cover for spring bulbs, though it is not strongly weed suppressive. It is a Nitrogen fixer.  Slow-growing at first, it then forms a dense mat. Plants should be spaced about 30cm apart each way and they form a carpet, the branches rooting at intervals along the stems.

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OUR FRIENDS AT PFAF HAVE AN AMAZING DATABASE OF SPECIES (UK BASED);

Dryas octopetala 

WANT THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME?

We are offering what we think is the most exciting Permaculture training going on in Europe this year.  Check out this awesome learning opportunity- the 10 Week internship includes over 530hrs of curriculum based learning & 5 Certificate Courses with some of the planets leading practitioners/ designer joining us via conference call as well as local expertise ;

• 90hr+ PDC certified by PRI (Aus) & PC Assoc (UK)
• 5 day Forest Gardens & Perennial Cropping
• 5 day Regenerating Soils
• 5 day Keyline® Design & Holistic Management®
• 5 day Teaching Permaculture Creatively

You will also have time each week to be working on a detailed personal design project, with regular feedback from a professional designer and your peers.  You are also encouraged to keep a daily Learning Journal to build up a portfolio.

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