Alpine Avens

Alpine avens often put on a golden show across high elevations.  Geum rossii ssp. turbinatum (once Acomastylis rossii) is one of the more noticeable flowers on high altitude hikes.  The bright yellow flowers may trick you into thinking you are seeing buttercups or cinquefoils, but these avens seem to be able to grow in harsher, drier environments than those other types of wildflowers.

Also called golden or Ross’ avens, these plants can grow in huge colonies both below and above treeline.  The feathery leaves become longer and lusher in subalpine environments, but are noticeable even in the tundra areas.  Some high elevation trails are bordered by fields of alpines avens (with a few mountain bluebells thrown in).

These leaves turn an attractive red in the autumn.  The yellow blooms add pleasant color to summer hikes, while the red leaves do the same for walks in the fall.

I often see pika running about the rocks with clumps of alpine avens hanging out of their mouths.  According to Jeff Mitton at the University of Colorado, pika do not eat these wildflowers during the summer, but dry and store them for winter nibbles.  Alpine avens contain phenols which “make plants bitter and difficult to digest…but inhibit microbial decomposition and preserve the alpine avens in the haypile. Apparently, pikas can detect phenols, and they have come to rely on the fact that phenols degrade over the winter. As phenol levels drop into the tolerable range, these four-legged chemists consume the well-preserved alpine avens.”  So far this summer, the pika have refused to show themselves, but the pretty alpine avens have not been so shy!