Alpine snowbell

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Alpine snowbell

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Primulaceae
Genus:	Soldanella
Species:	S. alpina

Binomial name

Soldanella alpina
L.

The alpine snowbell or blue moonwort,^[1] Soldanella alpina, is a member of the Primulaceae native to the Alps and Pyrenees^[2].

Through Autumn, its leaves become thicker, and leathery to the touch. They are expectant of the snow and ice of the Alps, so these leaves lie flat on the ground. This ice may cover them several feet below the surface, but they are still capable of surviving.

By Spring, the sun will melt much of the snow and some, but not a great deal, of the ice, and the resulting droplets of water will cause and ensure growth for the plant as it slumbers. After the ice has melted, internal heating will occur within the plant, and the flower will push its way upwards. As the moonwort soaks up more water from the thawed ice, it is able to channel a way to the surface to meet the air and sunshine. They will then undertake standard transformations of a flower - they will be pollinated by the first bees, and their distinctive blue blossoms will begin to bloom. Their leaves will also change dramatically; rather than being dense and fibrous, they will now become fine and wispy or papery.

The moonwort will then yield its carbon composites to carve a channel through the remaining snow and the ice, and to certify the production of buds and blossoms for a plant stem that can exist above the mantle of the ice.

The cycle will continue in this way, and so the plant's remarkable means of surviving the intense cold are well established.