Time to celebrate the amazing alpine flowers! During the first weeks in June, the highest mountaintops in New England and New York finally begin to bloom.
AMC leads several tours above treeline on the Presidential Range to see the floral display. The group shown here braved rain, sleet, and 50 mph winds to visit the Alpine Garden last weekend.
The wild, wet weather did not dampen the exuberance of the Lapland rosebay (Rhododendron lapponicum). This small arctic shrub bursts forth with purple-pink flowers, set against its blue-green leaves.
Rare color variations include these rose-colored flowers above Huntington Ravine.
A white-flowered shrub was found in 2014 on Ball Crag.
The 2016 bloom seems exceptionally showy, for both the rosebay and the diapensia. This carpet of flowers was photographed in howling horizontal rain on the Nelson Crag Trail. Conditions were hard on the camera, but only made the alpine flowers more beautiful.
Photos and text by AMC Nature Notes guest blogger Allison W. Bell. Allison is the Co-Author of the AMC Guide To New England Alpine Summits.
