High Living #2: plants above the treeline

In my last post we went soaring well above where most of us spend much time, way up in the mountains where the conditions are too harsh for trees to survive - ie above the treeline. Today I want to introduce a selection of the plants that survive up there; some exclusively, others have broader habitat ranges. If you missed part one you may want to catch up before reading this, to get some background on the ecology and the places where these plants and animals live. On the other hand if you just want to browse the pictures here and enjoy some plant life you may not have met, that of course is fine too! It's mostly just a photo essay.

Silver Snow Daisies Celmisia sp. and Mountain Celery Aciphylla glacialis brighten the alpine
meadows in summer in Kosciuszko NP, in the NSW Australian Alps.

All these photos were taken in Australia and South America (and, just, in North America). I've only once been above the treeline in Africa and while I have strong memories of that day high in Lesotho (including a magnificent Lammergeier sailing overhead), that was well before my digital photography days. And the closest I've got in Asia was the lower slopes of mighty Kinabalu. 

Let's start with some plants. 

Mataguanaco ('guanaco bush') Anarthrophyllum desideratum, Torres del Paine NP,
Chilean Patagonia. This spectacular spiny cushion bush pea thrives in the often frozen,
always windy treeless expanses of Patagonia. 

The next half dozen photos were also taken on the exposed Patagonian Steppes slopes of Torres del Paine NP; I've been there five times, not because I love the experience of cold, often wet, winds (I don't) but because it's an extraordinary landscape, and supports some appropriately extraordinary life.

A more 'conventional' pea, Paramela Adesmia boronioides, a tough aromatic low shrub
which grows on the edge of the open plains at the foot of the mountains.

Mariposa del Campo ('butterfly of the field') Alstroemeria patagonica, in the mostly 
South American lily family Alstroemeriaceae. This is a tiny plant, with flowers on 
5cm stems to keep their head down out of the wind.

Darwin's Slipper (but in Spanish Zapatito de la Virgen, 'our lady's slipper')
Calceolaria uniflora, family Calceolariaceae. This is another very low-growing
herb of the harshly exposed Patagonian meadows and mountainsides.
Astonishingly it is pollinated by the Least Seedsnipe, one of a small family 
of four shore waders which have become vegetarians in Patagonia
and the high Andes. Apparently the white 'lip' of the flower contains sugars which 
the seedsnipe appreciate; in pecking the flower they transfer pollen from on flower 
to another. Rather than make you wait for the animals section (by when you may have 
forgotten about it) I'll introduce this surprising mountain bird now.

 

Least Seedsnipe Thinocorus rumicivorus near Coyaique, northern Patagonia

Estrallita ('little star') Perezia recurvata, a daisy. It grows on rocky ground
in the Patagonian Steppe.

And finally, to my surprise at the time, there are orchids in this harsh wind-blasted steppe land; here are a couple which delighted me.

Porcelain Orchid Chlorea magellanica. There is nothing small and 'keeping head down' 
about this beauty, which is found as far south as icy Tierra del Fuego. It can spend 
8 months of the year under snow but when the snow melts its flowering spike
can grow to 50cm tall. 

Yellow Gavilea Gavilea lutea can also grow tall, to 60cm. While probably
most often found in Nothofagus forests, it also grows in wet areas
in the absence of trees.

Far to the north of Patagonia in the Andes of southern Peru near Chivay at 3600masl, conditions are much drier and many alpine plants must grow on the rock faces.

Air plants Tillandsia sp. growing on a road cutting. They are bromeliads which take
most of their nutrients from the air; bromeliads are probably better known as
abundant epiphytes in tropical cloud forests (though the most famous bromeliad
is doubtless the pineapple!).

Puya Puya sp., another genus of bromeliads, growing on the top of
the same high altitude road cutting.

Cactuses growing, perhaps unexpectedly, at the top of Colca Canyon, also
near Chivay at about 3600masl, above the trees.

Again in the southern Peruvian Andes a very different and moister habitat, perched on the brink of the Amazon basin above the cloud forest at 3800masl at Acjanaco Pass on the Manu road, has of course very different plants. 

Gentians Halenia sp. and hardy grasses in the mist at Acjanaco Pass.

And to balance the unexpectedness (to me at least) of yellow gentians, here's
a more familiarly coloured one - I'm thinking Gentiana sedifolia? - in El Cajas NP
in the southern Andes of Ecuador, at some 4000masl.

And finally, from further north again, in North America in fact, some ancient, non-flowering plants from the páramo of central Costa Rica at about 3400masl.

Lycopods, or club mosses, a Class of now small plants which appeared more than 400 million years ago,
long before the rise of the flowering plants, and which dominated forests for a long time.

But we'll finish this part with some Australian alpine plants, mostly from Kosciuszko NP. After an introductory 'wildflower meadow' photo, there are 11 photos of plants from 11 different families. All were growing above the treeline in Kosciuszko NP except where I've specified otherwise.

  December on the Main Range of Kosciuszko NP, with the flowering just 
getting underway; the flower spikes are mostly of Candle Heath Richea continentis.

A close-up of the Candle Heath, a striking plant which lives in boggy situations in 
the alps of NSW and Victoria.

The snow country is perhaps not where we expect to find ferns, but nature can
 enable life in almost any environment. Alpine Water Fern Blechnum (now 
usually known as Austroblechnum) penna-marina is extremely hardy and even 
lives on the sub-Antarctic islands, as well as New Zealand and South America. 
It likes a sheltered position, often among rocks, and spends part of the year under snow.

Bidgee Widgee Aceana novae-zelandiae is far from an alpine specialist - it can be found
at sea level - but it is also very much at home above the trees. It's in the rose family, and
the head of tiny white flowers later forms a bundle of sticky burrs. They evolved to
transfer seed on fur and feathers, but many high country walkers have discovered
that socks suit them equally well. 

Mountain Celery Aciphylla glacialis is indeed in the celery family (Apiaceae). It is found
almost entirely above the treeline and is recovering well from the ravages of
historical alpine cattle grazing.

 

Ribbony Grass Chionochloa frigida grows only in the Kosciuszko alpine zone;
it too has recovered well since the removal of stock grazing. (Actually I'm having slight
doubts about my identification here, from a long time ago. Any comments welcome.)

Tasmanian Mountain Gentian Chionogentias diemensis, Ben Lomond NP,
north-eastern Tasmania. The gentian family is associated with mountains
on every continent (except Antarctica of course). This species is 
limited to alpine and subalpine areas in Tasmania.

Silver Ewartia Ewartia nubigena, Main Range Kosciuszko NP. A small-flowered but
extensive mat-like daisy bush that only grows in exposed alpine herbfields, where
it can colonise bare areas of soil and rock..

Royal Bluebell Wahlenbergia gloriosa in the Snow Gums in Namadgi National Park
in the Australian Capital Territory. It does however extend above the treeline, and
as the ACT's official wildflower emblem (despite my reservations as to its 
appropriateness!) I thought I should give it a guernsey. 

Alpine Mint Bush Prostanthera cuneata, Kosciuszko NP. This lovely member of the true
mint family grows above the treeline (and just below it), often among granite boulders,
in the NSW and Victorian alps.

Alpine Rice-flower Pimelea alpina is another prostrate shrub when growing above
the treeline. It has a similar distribution to the Alpine Mint Bush. The hundred or so
species in Australia and New Zealand are otherwise all found at lower altitudes
and most are erect shrubs.

Alpine Orites Orites lancifolia belongs to a generally unfamiliar genus in a generally very
familiar family, Proteaceae (ie banksias, grevilleas, waratahs etc). This one is found high
in mountains from the ACT to the Victorian alps and grows erectly even above the treeline. 
The only other Australian species is a rainforest tree! 
(There are also four species in Tasmania and two in South America.) 

And that I think is probably enough for one posting! I wonder sometimes if my longer postings aren't a bit off-putting, but I'm unlikely to get feedback from people who don't want to read that much, so I'm only speculating. 

It's not the time to be going to admire the flowers in the high country in the Southern Hemisphere, but perhaps you can bear this in mind for the coming summer. It's made me think we should plan another expedition to Kosciuszko, probably before or after the school holidays. Meantime, thanks for accompanying me on this particular wildflower walk; I've enjoyed it, hope you have too.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 13 AUGUST

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