102 
THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD 
What plants grow 
in the cold 
deserts? 
There are only a few plants that are able to 
work so fast. The only common plant in the 
frozen north is the reindeer moss. There are 
also some little flowering plants that have small 
bright flowers. Some of them even have 
berries. Trees grow there, too, but would not 
be recognized as trees. The summer is so short 
that the tree can grow only a tiny bit each year. 
A larch tree that is fifteen years old may be 
only a few inches high. 
In the extremely cold deserts of the antarctic 
there are practically no plants at all. 
High mountains are sometimes cold deserts 
also. Traveling from the base of a high moun¬ 
tain to the peak is something like traveling from 
the equator to the north pole. At the base are 
the luxurious plants of the warm climate. 
Farther up the weather becomes colder and the 
season of winter lasts longer. First the hard 
wood trees give up, and only the conifers are 
left. Conifers or cone-bearing trees, like the 
pines and firs, can grow in quite severely cold 
climates. At length, however, the climate be- 
Alpine plants 
must grow 
quic\ly 
