Alpine Plants

a general name for plants of an arctic character. The plants of Switzerland, from an elevation of 6,000 feet upward, were called alpine by early botanists. Similar plants found on the upper slopes of mountains, as on the Andes from 12,000 feet upward, in Lapland, southern Patagonia, and in arctic countries generally, have the same characteristics and are often identical. They consist for the most part of mosses, flowering plants that develop in a few weeks, some of great brilliancy, dwarf willows two or three inches high, etc. The general term, "alpine," has been extended to all plants of this sort.