Here the mountain is transformed. You cross a threshold, a line you will not find on any map: a dusting of woody plants that girds the evergreen woods, separating them from the alpine meadows. The shrubs that live in this belt grow horizontally, hugging the ground.
For this reason, they are said to have prostrate, or creeping trunks. Think of them as twisted bushes. Like the rhododendrons, which love soil with plenty of humus: they absorb great quantities of organic nutrients from the decomposition of plant and animal matter.
That’s one of the reasons rhododendrons are always found in the company of another shrub, one you are familiar with: its berries turn your tongue blue. Yes, the blueberry bush, whose juicy, sour berries nourish the soil with organic humus. There are two kinds here: Vaccinium myrtillus, the bilberry, and Vaccinium uliginosum, the bog bilberry, which everyone calls the false blueberry.
The intelligence of the rhododendron can also be appreciated above ground: they only grow on mountain slopes with northern exposure, because the snow lingers longer there, protecting them until the arrival of spring. Other twisted shrubs, like the dwarf juniper, instead choose the slopes that receive the most sunlight: you can see them embracing large boulders, whose heat they absorb.
