Field of Science

Friday Fabulous Flowers - Alpine Tundra

To complete this week's mini-series of blogs on Rocky Mountain alpine tundra you just knew the FFF would be something from way up there, so not to disappoint here are actually two dicot flowers, and a bit of grass. When two low, small-leafed mound forming plants grow close to each other it often is difficult to figure out where one ends and the other begins. Actually most of the leaves you see belong to the clover (Trifolium dasyphyllum), but it's difficult to see their trifoliate nature (note the upper most leaf on the right side). The yellow flower is Sedum lanceolatum (?) and its short succulent leaves are barely visible. A 3x5 file card would cover the whole field of view. The grass may be a wild rye.

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