Flora of the Sierra Nevada alpine zone

[1][6]: 17 Botanists have ranked the Sierra Nevada alpine zone floral bloom as one of California's foremost wildflower displays, with flowers of fantastic color and abundance.

The plants are influenced by having to endure long and very cold winters, poor to no soils, constant high winds, intense sunlight, and a short cool and dry growing season in the summer, that lasts only about 6–8 weeks.

[5] Alpine plants often have gray appearance from hairs covering the leaves, which reflect the intense sunlight, and protect from winds that cause high rates of water loss through transpiration.

[5]: 17 [11] Fleshy roots and underground organs store food in the form of starches and sugars, allowing the plant to quickly grow when snow melts.

[5] A small group[citation needed] of Sierra Nevada alpine plants can found around the world in northern latitudes, which is called (circumboreal).

[4]: 225  An example is bush cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa),[4]: 225  which ranges throughout arctic regions of Alaska, Labrador, and the high mountains of Eurasia.

[2] Transpiration rates are of importance in determining local distribution patterns of flora of the Sierra Nevada alpine zone.

[6]: 61  Flat-topped pussytoes (Antennaria corymbosa) is a small (to 16 inches (0.41 m)), mat-forming perennial herb, spreading via a tangled network of stolons.

[6]: 151  dwarf daisy, (E. pygmaeus), grows from a woody taproot as a compact, cushion forming plant that can be found on rocky slopes and flats from 9,500 to 13,500 feet (2,900 to 4,100 m).

[4]: 235 [5]: 166 [9] It provides some of the most vivid color in the alpine zone, with flowers sometimes blooming in such profusion that they cover the leaves and rocky sloes and flats below.

[6]: 117  Foul smelling alpine gold (Hulsea algida) occurs only on talus (the pile of rocks at the bottom of cliffs), and rocky peaks as high as 13,000 feet (4,000 m).

[6]: 122 The borage family (Boraginaceae) has the genus Oreocarya, with plants similar in appearance such as low cryptantha (O. humilis), a relatively small, hairy perrential with dense, leafy stems from a woody base found up to 11,900 feet (3,600 m).

Sierra forget-me-not (O. nubigena) is found at even higher elevations, to 12,900 feet (3,900 m),[6]: 152  and is adapted to rigors of dry winds by being covered with long, stiff, bristly hairs.

[5][6]: 123 Pink family (Caryophyllaceae) member nuttall's sandwort (Minuartia nuttallii)) is a ground hugging mat with short, needle like leaves.

[5]: 112 Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana)is a sweetly fragrant orchid family (Orchidaceae) member with a spiral of flowers.

[6]: 176 Lemmon's paintbrush (Castilleja lemmonii), in the broomrape family (Orobanchaceae), is found in alipine meadows[6]: 81  or dry, rocky places[5]: 69  to 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

[5]: 70 The poppy family (Papaveraceae) has steer's head (Dicentra uniflora) and few-flowered bleeding heart (D. pauciflora), each growing to 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

[5]: 45 In the alpine zone, the lopseed family (Phrymaceae) has an occasional mat-forming primrose monkeyflower (Mimulus primuloides), which has been found in a wide range of elevations, from 2,000 to 11,000 feet (610 to 3,350 m).

[4]: 235 [5]: 161–2 [6]: 47  John Muir's favorite wildflower, mountain pride (Penstemon newberryi), "carpets granite slopes with brilliant pink flowers".

[6]: 47  American alpine speedwell (Veronica wormskjoldii) is an erect perennial that grows near moist streambanks and lakeshores from an underground stem (rhizome).

[6]: 181  At very high-elevations is sky pilot (Polemonium eximium), which has tightly pinnate leaves similar to mousetail (Ivesia shockleyi), and can be found growing on talus and rocky outcrops on lofty peaks to 13,800 feet (4,200 m).

[6]: 182  Butterballs,[4]: 224  or oval-leaved buckwheat (Eriogonum ovalifolium), has leaves that cluster very tightly forming almost impenetrable[4]: 224  mats or cushions on sandy or gravelly flats and in rocky soils, and grows to 12 inches (0.30 m)[6]: 183  or 13,000 feet (4,000 m)[4]: 224  elevation.

[5]: 90 [6]: 183 Another buckwheat family member found growing in 13 named varieties, from the desert floor all the way up to 12,500 feet (3,800 m), is naked stemmed eriogonum (E.

[4]: 230 [5]: 40 [9] It is unusual among alpine plants in that it has leaves that are relatively large, broad, and hairless (and edible, with a tangy-tart taste - "oxyria" meaning "sour").

[4]: 226  It has intricate 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 cm) leaves growing from a basal rosette, which are pinnately divided into 10-20 pairs of opposite, tiny lobed leaflets, creating the appearance of a nest of green centipedes.

[5]: 83 Shrubs tend to be small, and low growing to cope with high wind conditions and dense snowcovering, forming mats and cushions.

[1] Whitestem goldenbush (Ericameria discoidea) is a compact woody-based shrub in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), grows on open rocky slopes to 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

[5][6]: 114 In the heath family (Ericaceae), white mountain heather (Cassiope mertensiana) is 1 foot (0.30 m) tall, tiny-leaved, densely branching shrub growing on rocky ledges and in crevices up to elevations of 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

[5]: 119–120 [6]: 157 [9] Swamp laurel (Kalmia polifolia) is a low (to 8 inches (0.20 m) tall), branching, mat-forming evergreen shrub that grows in boggy alpine meadows or at the edge of water, up to 12,000 feet (3,700 m).

[5]: 124  Granite gilia, or prickly phlox (Linanthus pungens) is a 4 to 12 inches (10 to 30 cm) aromatic, hairy subshrub, having leaves with needle like lobes adapted to the alpine climate,[4]: 217  that grows in a sprawling manner to elevations of 13,000 feet (4,000 m).