Bristlecone Pine Forest (Hudsonian Life Zone)

Non-technical description: A high-elevation, Bristlecone Pine forest with few shrubs. Trees decline in height to dwarfed, gnarled, prostrate individuals deformed by the wind and cold near timberline.

In other areas, the Hudsonian Life Zone is a spruce-fir association where common species include Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmanni), alpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and Great Basin Bristlecone Pine. For the most part, we have only Bristlecone Pine and a few Limber Pine in this life zone. The understory usually is open, but may include Wax Currant, Bunchgrasses, and Common Juniper, a low-growing shrub-juniper. Deciduous trees in this life zone include Quaking Aspen.