The flowers are coming, the flowers are coming!

(More blog entries from howie)

Saturday afternoon, 6.7.08

It's early yet, but the annual alpine spectacular is coming on.

I had a chance late this afternoon to drive up to the Cow Pasture to check out the alpine flowers that I'd heard were starting to come out. Cow Pasture is near the 7 mile point at about 5,700 feet of elevation.  The Diapensia and Lapland Rosebay are in full bloom here with wonderful color contrasts to the early spring browns and greens of the sedges and lichen.  Come on up in the next couple of weeks to see these amazingly adaptive plants that manage quite nicely to thrive here above treeline.

Diapensia, with 1/2" flowers, 1" to 3" height and leather like leaves, this tough alpine flower seems well suited to Mt Washington's higher reaches.

Lapland Rosebay, flowers 5/8" to 1" on a plant 4 - 12" tall, seem in this area in large colorful mats.  One of the early bloomers at this location.

Comments

Add your comment here:

Your name:

Please enter your name as you'd like it to appear for this comment.

Subject:

Please enter a subject for your comment.

Comment:

Please enter some text for your comment.

Enter the code shown in the image:

Please enter the text you see in the box above, unless you are not a spambot. If you are a spambot, go away.