34 Forest Club Annual 



interest. Great areas of bowlder field and rock heaps covered 

 only with lichens stretch out before one as he comes out from 

 the timber and the brush lands below into this zone. 



The altitude of the zone ranges from 11,500 to the mountain 

 tops usually about 14,000 feet or occasionally nearly to 15,000 

 feet. However in many places there is considerable vegetation, 

 but it is always low. Species of willow grow only to a height of 

 one or two inches and in this height we may find stem, crown, 

 flowers, and fruit. Such species often form extensive mats or 

 carpets of glossy or hairy leaves a live forest in extreme minia- 

 ture. Many species of woody mat-forming plants and deep- 

 rooted perennials are common. It must be remembered that 

 the growing season in such alpine summits is a scant eight weeks 

 and so vegetation is forced to crowd foliation, flowering, and 

 fructification all within this brief period. We see in these de- 

 mands something of the significance and the efficiency of the 

 enormous root system richly stored with reserve materials. 

 Grasses and sedges are numerous as to species and in some places 

 they form extensive areas of close sod. Frequently the grasses 

 and sedges are accompanied by other species whose flowers are 

 oftimes large and gorgeous. In such places the rock fragments 

 have been well disintegrated and they form with decayed organic 

 matter considerable soil covered with the low but luxuriant 

 vegetation which conceals all save the larger disintegrating 

 fragments of rock. *Many of the plants have very thick, hairy 

 leaves and gaily colored flowers. At 14,000 feet the vegetation 

 is very scant. Here disintegration has not proceeded far and 

 practically all plants except lichens are confined to the crevices 

 in the rock and to narrow areas with little soil between the 

 bowlders of the jumbled alpine rock pile. 



