The second misconception that I am in the process of revising is that tundra is a solitary, monochromatic lifeform. What I have come to see is that the tundra is a solitary, monochrome lifeform only from the air; a solitary, but colorful lifeform from about six feet up (me standing); and an incredibly dense, diverse multitude of life and color when you are only inches from it. This conceptual revision came to me the first time we walked up the hill right outside of Tununak. We were heading up to the rock people. I had mentioned wanting to know where the berries were - I had heard they were everywhere and yet I had seen none. What I learned was that I was looking for something that does not exist - bushes. There is very little on the tundra that grows higher than a few inches, the berries included. I had not realized that I had been walking over berries for the last hundred feet. Upon closer inspection I saw that the berries truly were everywhere. Small blackberries, looking and tasting nothing like blackberries back home, were growing nearly everywhere I looked. I also noticed for the first time how incredibly varied the tundra was. I can't make a good estimate about the number of different plants growing in a patch of ground, but it has to be dozens of species in dozens of colors spanning the spectrum from deep reds and purples to all shades of green. The flowers come in bright blues and purples, yellows and whites, and then there are berries coming in red, white, orange, black, and blue. Hardly a monotonous place.
The second misconception that I am in the process of revising is that tundra is a solitary, monochromatic lifeform. What I have come to see is that the tundra is a solitary, monochrome lifeform only from the air; a solitary, but colorful lifeform from about six feet up (me standing); and an incredibly dense, diverse multitude of life and color when you are only inches from it. This conceptual revision came to me the first time we walked up the hill right outside of Tununak. We were heading up to the rock people. I had mentioned wanting to know where the berries were - I had heard they were everywhere and yet I had seen none. What I learned was that I was looking for something that does not exist - bushes. There is very little on the tundra that grows higher than a few inches, the berries included. I had not realized that I had been walking over berries for the last hundred feet. Upon closer inspection I saw that the berries truly were everywhere. Small blackberries, looking and tasting nothing like blackberries back home, were growing nearly everywhere I looked. I also noticed for the first time how incredibly varied the tundra was. I can't make a good estimate about the number of different plants growing in a patch of ground, but it has to be dozens of species in dozens of colors spanning the spectrum from deep reds and purples to all shades of green. The flowers come in bright blues and purples, yellows and whites, and then there are berries coming in red, white, orange, black, and blue. Hardly a monotonous place.
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