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By Bob Difley
High mountain wildflowers are a study in tenacity
and adaptation. After a wildflower hike led by ranger-biologist
Linelle Wagner on Mt. Rainier, I ended up with great respect and
admiration for the flowers that survive the fierce winter. Tempestuous
weather conditions often rage around the mountain. At the Sunrise
Visitor Center, 6,000 feet into the atmosphere, the sub-alpine climate
can be cold, cloudy and drizzly--even in late August.
"It's so easy to destroy the wildflowers here I want to emphasize
the importance of staying on the trails, and not stepping on the
flowers," said Ranger Wagner. "Those scars on the hillside
up there were made in the 1930's and as you can see they have not
healed yet. This is a very fragile landscape and it takes hundreds
of years to undo some of the damage we people have done. The wildflowers
have adapted to this harsh environment, but the only thing they
can't take is our feet smashing them against the volcanic rock."
This year the visitor center opened on July 1. Four feet of snow
still lay on the ground. Last year on the fourth of July you could
ski over the top of the visitor center which still lay buried under
14 feet of snow.
Mt. Rainier's soil consists of lava, silica, pumice, and ash, which
is porous and does not hold moisture. Most of the plants have to
send down long taproots or bulbs, six feet into the ground to anchor
them and to store moisture and nutrients."
Plants have to perform their dance of life very hastily at this
altitude, since they only receive a two to three month growing season.
A plant expends twenty times the energy to flower as it does to
put out leaves and produce food. So plants wait years--as many as
20--to flower, when they are well established and can afford this
extra expenditure.
The evolution of tactics for survival of wildflowers and plants
does not include a defense against man's often careless disregard
for his environment. Let us all be extra careful, watch where we
step, and walk on trails, so that they will still be around to astound
our grandchildren as they have us.
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