Alpine Kinnikinnik and Phlox

Photograph

This image was made in the mountains (about 1700m elevation) just south of Chilliwack, a little over an hour's drive east from our home. The roughly bell shaped flowers and the thick round leaves belong to the Kinnikinnik, a plant familiar all the way to the high arctic. The larger five petaled flowers and the small thin leaves (lower right) belong to the Phlox. Both are hardy plants that live on thin soil in a cold environment that has a short (and sometimes rather dry) growing season.