Rocky MountainsThe Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch 3,000 mi (4,800 km) in a straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Canada, to New Mexico in the Southwestern United States.
Cascade RangeThe Cascade Range, or Cascades, is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as many of those in the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades. The small part of the range in British Columbia is referred to as the Canadian Cascades or, locally, as the Cascade Mountains.
Tree lineThe tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees can grow and beyond which they cannot. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low temperatures, extreme snowpack, or associated lack of available moisture). The tree line is sometimes distinguished from a lower timberline, which is the line below which trees form a forest with a closed canopy.
Pacific Coast RangesThe Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States; French: chaînes côtières du Pacifique; Spanish: cadena costera del Pacífico) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to northern and central Mexico.
Ruby MountainsThe Ruby Mountains (Shoshoni: 'Duka Doya', meaning “Snowcapped”) are a mountain range, primarily located within Elko County with a small extension into White Pine County, in Nevada, United States. Most of the range is included within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The range reaches a maximum elevation of 11,387 feet (3,471 m) on the summit of Ruby Dome.
Sierra NevadaMountain range in the United StatesThe Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera, an almost continuous chain of mountain ranges that forms the western "backbone" of the Americas.
KrummholzKrummholz (German: krumm, 'crooked, bent, twisted' and Holz, 'wood') — also called knieholz ('knee timber') — is a type of stunted, deformed vegetation encountered in the subarctic and subalpine tree line landscapes, shaped by continual exposure to fierce, freezing winds. Under these conditions, trees can survive only where they are sheltered by rock formations or snow cover.
ConiferGroup of seed plantsConifers () are a group of vascular plants and a subset of gymnosperms. They are woody trees and shrubs, mostly evergreen with a regular branching pattern, reproducing with male and female cones, usually on the same tree. They are wind-pollinated and the seeds are usually dispersed by the wind. Taxonomically, they make up the divisionPinophyta, also known as Coniferae. All extant conifers, except for the gnetophytes, are perennials with secondary growth.
PinePines (genus Pinus ()) are a genus of conifers in the family Pinaceae. Pinus is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The species are trees or shrubs with their leaves in bunches, usually of 2 to 5 needles. The seeds are carried on woody cones, with two seeds to each cone scale.Creeping pineCreeping pine may refer to several conifer species: Actinostrobus acuminatus, Australian, in family Cupressaceae Pinus albicaulis, North American, in family Pinaceae Pinus mugo, native to high places in Central Europe, in family Pinaceae Pinus pumila, Asian, in family Pinaceae Microcachrys, Australian, in family PodocarpaceaeList of Pinus speciesPinus, the pines, is a genus of approximately 110–120 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera, subgenus Pinus (hard pines), and subgenus Strobus (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further divided into sections and subsections based in the past on morphology, ecology and biogeography, and more recently increasingly from chloroplast DNA sequencing and whole plastid genomic analysis.
Montane ecosystemMontane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial factor in shaping plant community, biodiversity, metabolic processes and ecosystem dynamics for montane ecosystems. Dense montane forests are common at moderate elevations, due to moderate temperatures and high rainfall.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.