Dryas octopetala - Dryade à 8 pétales / Chênette - Mountain Avens

A flower with 8 white petals

This is a cute white flower with a bright happy yellow center! It is an alpine flower and its leaves remain green all year around. They say here in Switzerland that they were used during World War I & II to make tea. I think the Swiss military that were at altitude to protect the borders were melting snow every day and that eventually they would get to the bottom of the snowpack and find these green leaves, having nothing much to eat why not add them to the meltwater for taste? I have tried it in my hot water thermos and personally I did not think much of it as a tea, but then again I was not up in the Alps in the middle of winter freezing my hands & feet waiting for some military invasion, so I can imagine that to them it was a different thing altogether. 

This is what it looks like when it has gone to seed. A bunch of hair sticking straight up, waiting for the wind to take away the seeds and spread them further along the crest of the Alps to bloom elsewhere in the summertime. As you can see the leaves have not changed color as the flower has bloomed and gone to seed.