Flowers on High

AMC Outdoors, April 2000

By Michael Lanza

Alpine wildflowers are among nature's greatest anomalies. They grow in some of the planet's harshest environments, though they appear as fragile as rice paper and are extremely vulnerable to hikers' boots. In the Northeast, a rare collaboration of latitude, elevation, and climate creates high islands of habitat above treeline — typically between 4,500 and 5,000 feet — where a diverse array of alpine wildflowers bloom in profusion every summer.

"The plants are stranded, in a way, on these alpine summits," says Allison Bell, co-author with Nancy Slack of the AMC's Field Guide to the New England Alpine Summits and 85 Acres: A Field Guide to the Adirondack Alpine Summits, published by the Adirondack Mountain Club. Thousands of years ago, as glaciers receded from what is now the northern United States, alpine tundra covered much of the Northeast. As the climate warmed, those alpine regions shrank until they became isolated to the region's highest peaks.

Today, the high summits and ridges of the Northeast harbor a climate similar to that found in more northerly latitudes like Labrador. The wildflowers that grow on these summits are often found in few other spots in the world, including Labrador and Nova Scotia — but sometimes nowhere else. As the last snows disappear from the high country every June, the first wildflowers bloom, beginning a floral show that continues through the summer. "The season isn't very long, it's June to August, then it's over," Bell says.

The most significant alpine zones in the Northeast are found in New York's Adirondacks, on Mount Mansfield and Camel's Hump in the Green Mountains, in the Presidential Range and on Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains, in the Mahoosuc Range straddling the New Hampshire-Maine border, and on Maine's Katahdin, Saddleback Range, and Bigelow Range. But tiny alpine zones are found on lower summits, too. Slack says she found alpine azalea on Cannon Mountain about five years ago; it hadn't previously been known to grow there.

"The classic place, of course, is the Alpine Garden on Mount Washington," Bell says. "You can visit in August and see completely different flowers [than are seen in] June and July." She also recommends Mount Washington's Bigelow Lawn and Lakes of the Clouds, Monroe Flats on Mount Monroe, and Katahdin's Tableland.

"If you hike from Lakes of the Clouds [south], there are some really beautiful spots," Slack says. "There's a bog that has cloudberries, sometimes called baked apple berries because they're the same color as baked apples. They're a delicacy in Scandinavia, but quite rare in eastern North America. Mount Mansfield has a long stretch of alpine terrain, and has mountain cranberries."

These plants survive in the harsh alpine climate through adaptations like diminutive size, which keeps the plants' buds and stems below the worst weather and reduces their food needs. Some grow no more than an inch tall. Those that grow in dense cushions suffer less abuse from the wind. The dark leaves of plants like diapensia absorb heat from the sun efficiently. Many sedges and grasses are pliable enough to bend under strong winds, and produce their buds underground or near the ground. Some have adapted to photosynthesizing at colder temperatures. Most are perennial — they live more than one season. The alpine growing season is too short for most annuals, which finish their life cycle in one season.

Alpine wildflowers bloom in waves. Three of the earliest species to flower, as the snow melts away in early to mid-June, are among the most spectacular — and grow together in the same 'community.' Diapensia, known for its numerous small white flowers atop a green mat of tiny leaves, grows in thick mounds in areas exposed to extreme winds. Found with it are Lapland rosebay, a dwarf rhododendron with large magenta flowers; and alpine azalea, a compact, pink flower that carpets the ground. They are found on Bigelow Lawn, Monroe Flats, the summits of Mounts Franklin and Eisenhower and elsewhere in the Presidential Range, as well as on parts of Katahdin and neighboring Hamlin Peak. Diapensia grows independently on Franconia Ridge.

Mid-summer flowers, blooming from late June into July, include alpine bistort, which is spiked with multiple white flowers and common in the alpine zone. Alpine marsh violet, "this sort of strange, lavender-pink flower and very fragrant," Bell says, "likes the wetter places." Alpine brook saxifrage, which blooms in July and August, is relatively rare, found in alpine ravines and isolated areas such as near Lakes of the Clouds. It produces a tiny white flower with five petals and grows in tufts among boulders (the name saxifrage means "rock breaker"). Popular and easily identifiable are bluebells, whose stalks bend under the weight of vivid blue, bell-shaped flowers; they bloom from July into September.

Late summer brings several species of goldenrod, including alpine goldenrod, which produces a yellow flower. "It's one of the last things that you'd see," Bell says. Mountain sandwort, which carpets the ground with white, five-petal flowers and is common along trails in alpine zones, blooms from July until the first frost, usually in September. Some alpine wildflowers are very rare. The rarest alpine plant in New England is the dwarf cinquefoil, an early bloomer found only on Washington and Franconia Ridge. It has small green leaves and yellow flowers with five petals. Ten years ago, efforts by the AMC, New England Wildflower Society, and the USFS, brought it back from near-extinction.

If you're into grasses and sedges, look for deer's-hair sedge, common in the alpine zone and identified by its thick grassy tufts; and cotton sedge, distinguished by cotton-like white balls atop its stalk, growing in boggy areas. Identifying alpine plants adds another dimension to hiking. "For the person who has never seen them, if you find one and find out what it is, it becomes a friend and you look for it again," Slack says. "Once you know some of the common ones, it's fun to find something new."

—Michael Lanza is author of The Ultimate Guide to Backcountry Travel, from AMC Books.