Alpine Cushion Plants Help Other Plants Survive in Harsh Mountain Environments

Alpine cushion plants help other plant species to survive in harsh mountain environments, according to a new research.

Cushion plants are found in alpine, sub-Antarctic and Arctic regions around the world. They are characterized by a distinctive, round, cushion-like shape. The plants' shoots and tiny leaves are compacted into mounds that hug the ground. Their tight growth prevents cold winds from reaching the plant's interior. This helps them withstand harsh conditions in the mountains. 

A team of scientists from University of Gothenburg, Sweden, studied 77 alpine cushion plant communities in five continents. They found that the plants interact with other plant species in the severe mountain environments. Cushion plants create protective environments to help other plants, which are less tolerant to stress, to survive.

"Cushion plants create additional viable living environments for other species, and are therefore important keystone species that provide the fundamental conditions required for greater biodiversity in the most extreme alpine environments," explains Robert Björk, ecologist and researcher at the University of Gothenburg's Department of Earth Sciences.

Cushion plants have evolved more than 50 independent occasions in the higher plants' evolutionary history. As the environment becomes more severe, cushion plants create more phylogenetically unique plant communities compared to other plant species found in the adjacent open ground, the researchers said.

The findings of the study appear in the journal Ecology Letters.