A concise introduction to the science behind the success of alpine plants, this fascinating and accessible book will enable gardeners to tailor their cultivation practices in lowland gardens to mimic the alpine habitat as closely as possible.

These experienced and highly respected nature writers have produced an outstanding field guide to the plants that grow above the tree line, at the higher elevations of the Rockies and Cascades, and other ranges of the Western Cordillera of North America. Here is comprehensive information on almost 1,200 species of trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and more, with over 2,000 illustrations: color photos, line drawings and range maps.

Generations of plant scientists have been fascinated by alpine plant lifean ecosystem that experiences dramatic climatic gradients over a very short distance. This comprehensive book examines a wide range of topics including alpine climate and soils, plant distribution and the treeline phenomenon, plant stress and development, global change at high elevation, and the human impact on alpine vegetation. Geographically, the book covers all parts of the world including the tropics.

North America is replete with beautiful aplines, and this guide is equally useful to the traveler or the gardener for its identification, propagation, and cultivation information.

"An alphabetical description of a large range of alpine plants, in clear and careful detail, with notes on their origins, natural habitat and, where appropriate, their particular horticultural requirements." --Publisher description.

With this reference, gardeners can successfully replicate alpine plants' native conditions, allowing them to grow such choice alpines as gentians, daphnes, and Dianthus. Dramatic photographs and descriptions take readers through the Pyrenees, Alps, Balkans, and Carpathians to capture the charms of these unique mountain plants.

This is the first book to provide comprehensive information on the anatomy and ecology of arctic and alpine plants from cold sites around the globe, including representative species from Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, Himalaya, Japan, Argentina, Ecuador and Western USA. It presents the study sites, including characteristic landscape and vegetation photographs. It also discusses species distribution, habitat preferences and features plant pictures, particularly focusing on the specific stem anatomical features, which differ in many cases from temperate zone herbs. Furthermore, each plant is characterized according to a newly constructed codification system. Based on the first author’s 20-years of field research, a close collaboration with numerous botanical gardens, and the vast ecological experience of the other authors, the book presents approximately 350 species. The general layout is comparable to Doležal et al’s 2018 book Anatomy, Age and Ecology of High Mountain Plants in Ladakh, the Western Himalaya.