Mountain sandwort
Arenaria montana
Family · Caryophyllaceae · Harmless
The carpet of large white flowers covering road banks and schist slopes of the northwest in May. For the size of the plant, the flowers are out of proportion, and that is what makes it memorable.
Uplands · Scrubland · Roadsides and waste ground · Pine woods
Also known aslarge-flowered sandwort
How to tell it
White flowers with five entire rounded petals, two centimetres or more, which is huge for the family. Thin trailing stems, small narrow opposite leaves. It forms loose mats over acid soil.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. It is one of the plants that best shows the difference between the northwest and the rest of the country: where it covers a bank, the soil is acid and the rain is plentiful.