Windswept mountain tops receive little protection from winter snow cover. The plants freqently have adaptations to resist the drying effects of the wind. In addition to growing flat against the ground the leaf surfaces are can be hairy or leathery. The Least Willow Salix herbacea has woody stems only a few centimetres high with tough, oval leaves. It can form a high proportion of the vegetation on bare summits.
Mosses also make up a large component of the vegetation with Racomitrium species making hairy carpets, especially when there is very little soil. Each leaf has a hairy point and the plants create their own micro-climate to conserve moisture. Other plants with hairy leaves include the rare Norwegian Mugwort Artemisia norvegica with round yellow flowers that is only found on three mountain tops in Scotland. Rosettes of narrow grey leaves might belong to the Dwarf Cudweed Gnaphalium supinum that grows in bare open areas.
Two plants have their leaves divided into little leaflets. Sibbaldia procumbens has three blue-green leaflets each with three points and minute yellow flowers. The Alpine-Lady's-mantle has 5 - 7 leaflets dark green on top but with the backs of the leaves covered in silver hairs that also make a margin round the edge. It has larger clusters of yellow flowers.
Although there is a limited range of plants that occur in these conditions more species can be found by looking over as wider area.
Norwegian Mugwort
Click on a word or picture to find out more about the plant when its name is underlined