American Alpine Speedwell

Veronica wormskjoldii is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common name American alpine speedwell. It is native to much of northern and western North America, including the western United States and northern Canada, from where it grows in moist alpine habitat, such as mountain forest understory. It has a wide subarctic distribution from Alaska to Greenland. It is named after the Danish botanist Morten de Wormskjold (1783–1845) who had studied under professor Jens Wilken Hornemann (1770–1841) and had reportedly collected 157 species of vascular plants during an expedition to Greenland in 1812–1813, more than doubling the then number known. The expedition was manifestly to collect specimens for the Flora Danica and was financed by Wormskjold's father, though Hornemann sponsored chancery secretary Friedrich Gustav Heiliger (c.1789-) as botanical draftsman, paid for by the royal treasury. He stayed in Nuuk and in the vicinity of Qaqortoq and was helped to collect the plant specimens by the local Greenlandic population, which Wormskiold described.