page_title: Alpine plant
section_title: Early flowering plants
hierarchical_section_title: Alpine plant / Adaptations / Reproduction / Early flowering plants
context_page_description: Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. There are many different plant species and taxon that grow as a plant community in these alpine tundra. These include perennial grasses, sedges, forbs, cushion plants, mosses, and lichens. Alpine plants are adapted to the harsh conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation, wind, drought, poor nutritional soil, and a short growing season.
  Some alpine plants serve as medicinal plants.
context_section_description: Some plants flower immediately after snow melting or soil thawing. These early flowering plants always form their flowers in the previous season, called preformation. This flower primordium is produced one to three years before flowering which ensures that flowering is not delayed after snowmelt and that with the right environmental conditions, there will be enough time for seed set. Consequently, they risk frost damage to the preformed inflorescence. In order to minimize frost damage, preformed flowers are often surrounded by tightly packed bracts that are densely covered in trichomes. This helps to keep the interior of a flower bud warm. Because of early season pollinator limitation, plants that bloom early generally have a low rate of reproductive success. One advantage of flowering early is that seeds that are produced have a greater chance of developing to maturity before the next freeze. They also have a high outcrossing rate, which helps to increase genetic diversity. Speed and time of flowering is dependent on time of snowmelt, temperature, and photoperiod, but usually occurs 10 to 20 days after snowmelt.
caption: Glory-of-the-Snow is an alpine plant that preforms its flowers in the previous season so that it can flower as soon as the snow starts to melt in spring
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