10 Wildflowers of Fogo Island

Seek out this striking wildflower scattered around wet areas: meadows, marshes, or along the banks of a pond. With its blue-white petals spread towards the sun, it blooms from late June to early August. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the flower has been used as traditional medicine for First Nations, as treatment for skin disorders by modern herbalists, and as a whistle in kids’ games.   

This perennial shrub flowers in wet barrens in June. With their bright-fuchsia hue, the flowers resemble small saucers; they grow close to the ground, provide food for pollinators, and adorn dark marshes with vibrant bursts of colour. 

Wet landscapes like forest edges and pond shores are ideal for the purple chokeberry. Its small, white flowers bloom in June and July and then develop into solitary, dark berries in September and October. While edible, these berries, also known as aronia berries, are bitter and tart in taste, but rich in antioxidants.

Chuckley Pears are also known as serviceberries, Juneberries, or chuckleberries. Found in mixed forests, barrens, and swamps, these deciduous shrubs produce delicate, five-petalled white flowers from May to late June. The flowers turn to purple-black fruit from late July to August and can be made into jams.

You can find this pale blue or violet bell-shaped flower growing in grassy meadows between late June and mid-September. On Fogo Island, they’re especially common between Brimstone and Fogo Head in the community of Fogo. In British and Norse mythology, the flower is believed to have magical properties and attract supernatural beings. Let your imagination wander.

Also known as bird or tufted vetch, cow vetch colours the roadsides of Fogo Island with its dense clusters of violet-blue flowers that blossom from July to September. The plants produce pea pods after the flowers have bloomed — while some varieties do produce edible peas if properly processed, many are toxic.  

Common among the barrens of Fogo Island, this evergreen shrub gifts its surroundings with round clusters of white flowers that bloom from mid-June to late July. The leaves are the real stars and can be steeped to make a nutrient-rich tea.

Lupins infuse our landscape with pastoral, postcard-perfect beauty. Spot them blowing in the breeze along the road, across fields and yards. Often purple, but sometimes white or pink, the flowers grow in spike-shaped clusters, standing tall amidst the grass. While visitors appreciate the flowers, many provinces of Atlantic Canada consider them invasive since they can proliferate quickly and take over other species.

It’s only right that a place as special as Newfoundland and Labrador would have such a unique plant as its provincial flower. Mainly found in wet bogs, the pitcher plant bends its stiff, red wine-coloured petals towards the leaves that ring its long stem. That’s where this insectivorous plant captures its prey; insects are attracted to the leaves, fall in, and remain trapped inside the “pitcher”. Find this iconic flower growing from July to late September.

Look for the vivid purple clusters of the rhodora around ponds, streams, and forest edges. Alternately called wild honeysuckle, this distinctive flower—with its wild, tangled shape—blooms on tall, deciduous shrubs. According to Fogo Island’s beekeeper, they’re particularly popular with the island’s bee population.