You’ve come to the Arctic area of the globe, the part around the North Pole. Here the winters are long and gelid and the summers short and cool. But plants have managed to establish themselves here, too. They start growing as soon as the snow melts: it’s true that summer is short, but the sun shines for 24 hours, so the plants can bloom quickly. Up here you can appreciate the natural intelligence that determines the form of each plant: many are small, and they hug the ground to escape the wind and clump together against the cold. Some cover their buds and stems with hairs, others shroud their seeds in wool. Some form flowers shaped like a calyx: that way, the sun’s rays cannot miss their mark, as they are directed right to the center.
But the further north you go in the Arctic Circle, the less light there is and the colder it gets.
Up there, near the pole, only mosses and lichens can survive.
