Tiny Plants: Hiking on the Ute Trail Alpine Tundra
On a recent hiking trip around the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, one of the trails I hiked was the Ute Trail up at about 12k ft, in an alpine tundra biome. SO MANY COOL tiny plants to find! Unfortunately, I missed the bulk of the spring blooms here on the tundra, but I was fortunate to catch a few species on their last legs. I still have a lot of final plant ID left to do, but you’ll see some moss campion (Silene acaulis) with dried blooms, some tiny Fendler’s sandwort (Eremogone fendleri) still flowering (tiny white flowers), and purple/blue alpine harebell (Campanula uniflora) and a few others, along with some amazing lichens (the orange are likely Rusavskia elegans but haven’t confirmed). Special note: these tundra plants are very delicate and can take years to regenerate so please do not walk on them...stay on the trails or rock hop!
