Twinflower
Linnaea borealis
Pollinator plant

(c) Chris Johnson, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Chris Johnson
Growing it
| When | Flowers June to July |
|---|---|
| Type | groundcover |
| Sun | Partial shade, full shade |
| Water | Medium |
| Soil | pH 4.5–6.5 |
| Hardiness | zone 2–6 |
| Mature height | 0.1 m |
| Mature spread | 0.45 m |
| Spacing | 0.3 m |
| Years to maturity | 3 |
| Bloom | Jun–Jul |
| Flower colour | Pink read from a published flora |
| In bloom | June July |
| Native to | AB, SK |
round leaves about 1.5 cm long in opposite pairs
Where it has been recorded
Which ecoregions the records fall in
- Eastern Continental Ranges central AB: 607 records, high confidence
- Western Alberta Upland central AB: 510 records, high confidence
- Northern Continental Divide south AB: 382 records, high confidence
- Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 352 records, high confidence
- Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 223 records, high confidence
- Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 152 records, high confidence
- Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 59 records, high confidence
- Peace Lowland north AB: 36 records, high confidence
- Wabasca Lowland north AB: 19 records, medium confidence
- Slave River Lowland north AB: 15 records, medium confidence
- Churchill River Upland north SK: 11 records, medium confidence
- Western Boreal central AB: 7 records, low confidence
- Mid-Boreal Lowland central SK: 5 records, low confidence
- Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 4 records, low confidence
- Clear Hills Upland north AB: 3 records, low confidence
- Fescue Grassland south AB: 3 records, low confidence
These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.
See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.
Documented animals
17 documented relationships.
pollen for
- Half-black Bumble Bee Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Hylaeus annulatus Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Hylaeus leptocephalus Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Lasioglossum cressonii Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Lasioglossum knereri Guzman et al. 2022
- Lasioglossum quebecense Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Melangyna lasiophthalma Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Osmia proxima Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Phaonia serva Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Platycheirus rosarum Barrett & K. Helenurm 1987
- Two-ranked Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
nectar for
- Brown-tailed Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020
- Lasioglossum marinense LaManna et al. 2020
- Osmia tristella LaManna et al. 2020
- Sitka Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
- Snowberry Clearwing Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Yellow-fronted Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020
Also worth knowing
Safety
Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety
Buying it
About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (groundcover default); AB retail as of 2026
Where these numbers came from
- Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate