Plants

Beach Pinweed

Beach Pinweed
© Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre

Beach Pinweed is a herbaceous perennial plant occurring on large and relatively stable barrier sand dune systems.

Canadian populations of Beach Pinweed are of a variety endemic to the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence and have a very limited geographic range. Only 15 populations in five regions of occurrence are known to exist on New Brunswick’s eastern coast and Prince Edward Island’s north coast.

Gulf of St. Lawrence Aster

Gulf of St. Lawrence Aster
© Parks Canada / Kerry-Lynn Atkinson

The Gulf of St. Lawrence Aster is a small annual plant that grows in wet sandy habitat found in dune slacks and along sandy streams. It has been identified at several locations in the park, but because it is an annual and not a perennial, its distribution and abundance vary from year to year.

It grows in low numbers and is found only in the Gulf of St. Lawrence region.

The Gulf of St. Lawrence Aster was recently reintroduced at Blooming Point in PEI National Park. Over 100 plants and seed heads that were grown by biologists at the University of Prince Edward Island were transplanted on the aster’s preferred and traditional habitat – relatively sheltered sandy areas that experience periodic flooding.

The dynamic and ephemeral nature of the aster's habitat, coupled with the fact that it is an annual, makes it impossible to predict where the next colony of Saint Lawrence Aster may establish. Resource Conservation personnel will continue to search and monitor for this tiny plant in years to come.