Alpine Plants List

What are Alpine Plants?

You can see alpine plants growing above the treeline, where no forest can survive. Conditions there are harsh: cold winds, thin air, and intense sunlight every day. The growing season lasts only a few weeks.

Many species remain low to the ground to avoid strong winds. The full list of alpine plants worldwide includes between 8,000 and 10,000 vascular species, which represent about 4% of the world's plants.

Classification of Alpine Plants by Growth Form

Alpine species cope with various challenges thanks to several different body types:

• Cushion plants — tightly fold their stems into a dome-shaped mound that retains heat and moisture, protecting them from drying winds;
• Rosette plants — form a flat circle of leaves near the ground that protects the growing center and catches the low-angle sun;
• Dwarf shrubs — retain woody stems but remain short and creep along the ground, remaining exposed to the strongest winds and snow;
• Geophytes — store their energy in bulbs or tubers underground, safely surviving the winter, and then quickly germinate during the short summer.

Main Alpine Plant Families and Genera

Among all alpine plant names, a few families dominate mountain slopes around the world. The daisy family, Asteraceae, is the largest, plus edelweiss and mountain asters. Buttercups, heaths, and saxifrages also belong to this group. Find more details about the major families below.

Asteraceae and the grasses are the most diverse of these families. Our alpine plants list above shows a photo for each species.