Just A Bunch of Old Men

What? You don't see the old men? Then look harder: the field is full of them!

The old men are the yellow flowers. The formal name is Rydbergia. The more familiar name is Old Man of the Mountain.

These guys grow anywhere from 2-6 inches tall up here on the tundra, and they always face east, away from the prevailing wind. As you might imagine, sometimes people call this flower an alpine sunflower. I guess if they were planted in Kansas, they'd be six feet tall.

Speaking of height, see the squatty green vegetation? That's krummholz, German for 'crooked tree.' Krummholz aspires to be a tree. As it is, up here where the wind is sometimes 150 mph, that's all these plants can manage.

Of course, I'd lie low in a 150 mph gale, too.