Alpine Folio

Low flowers on high ground, named and explained

Alpine wildflowers are the small flowering plants that grow above the treeline, the height on a mountain where trees stop growing as a closed forest. Most are low, compact and bright for their size. They are often found on thin soil, among stones, and on ground that stays cold well into the warm season.

This site is a reference for naming them and for understanding why they look as they do. The cold, the wind and the short growing season above the treeline produce plants that hug the ground, form cushions or mats, and flower quickly. Those features are the first things a reader sees, and the guides explain what they mean.

The site has three guide pages. The first covers the conditions above the treeline. The second describes plant forms, including cushions, mats and rosettes. The third explains how flower colour, shape and timing change across a slope. A glossary defines the terms used throughout, a question page answers common starting points, and short guides cover single practical steps, such as telling two growth forms apart or reading a leaf.

Each note shows the date it was published. Terms are defined the first time they appear, so the pages can be read in order or used as a lookup. Nothing here replaces seeing a plant in its place, but the pages give a reader the words and checks needed to name what is in front of them.

Short guides

  1. Reading the leaf rosette

    How to read a leaf rosette from its centre, leaf shape, leaf surface and flowering stalk, with simple checks for a field record.

  2. Telling a cushion plant from a mat plant

    Practical checks for telling a cushion plant from a mat plant by height, density, edge and stem habit, without disturbing the plant.

Guides