Plants of mountainside communities
Why tree-line trees are short
Every winter, snow covers the trees that grow near the tree line on
mountains. The snow is about as deep one winter as the next.
When a tree is young, snow covers it each winter. But as it grows
taller, the top will stick above the snow. Killed by the freezing winds
that roar around the mountain, the top falls off.
In summer, the top grows again. In winter, it’s killed. The tree can’t
grow taller than the deepest snow.
