Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction 1
Scope of This Book 1
Vegetation Zones and Conifer Species 2
Habitats 5
How to Use This Book 8
Parts of a Flower 15
Flower Descriptions 18
Green Flowers 18
White Flowers 28
Yellow and Orange Flowers 86
Red and Brown Flowers 146
Pink Flowers 164
Blue and Purple Flowers 206
Sidebars
The Importance of Fire 20
Meaning of Latin Names 26
UV Radiation 37
Leaf Size and Plant Size at High Elevations 43
Rock Glacier Environment 47
Why Are So Many Plants Renamed? 55
Miscolored Plants on Calcitic Soils 59
How Old Are Alpine Plants? 60
A Tale of Two Columbines 67
Too Much Light 69
What Is a Scientific Name? 79
From Rock Type to Soil Nutrients 89
Flowers in the Family Asteracea 91
A Rainbow of Flowers 95
Plants of Calcareous Soils 99
Glacial Refugia 105
Treeline 110
Decisions Plants Make 113
Global Climate Change and Alpine Plants 115
Apomixis 120
So Many Monkeyflowers 126
Glossy Petals 131
A Bee's-Eye View of a Flower 133
Some Famous Botanists 135
Sierra Nevada Endemics 137
What Is a Petal? 143
Pollen Color 145
How Do Snow Plants Get Their Carbon? 150
The Paintbrushes' Dark Secret 153
Adapting to Hummingbirds 156
Biogeography of High-Elevation Sierra Plants 157
Pollinators 167
Mycorrhizae 173
Generalists and Specialists 184
Annual Plants at High Elevation 189
To Sweat or Not to Sweat 192
Buzz Pollination 197
Carl Sharsmith 1214
N-Fixation 226
Sky Islands 228
Hybrids 233
Red Versus Blue Penstemons 236
Nectar Replenishment 237
Pika Diets 241
Albinism 244
Bibliography 248
Scientific Name Index 255
Common Name Index 260
Ruler And Metric To English Conversion Table 265
About The Author 266