What is an alpine meadow?

An alpine meadow is open grassland with many flowering plants high on a mountain, around and above the tree line, where it is too cold for forests to grow.

Why do trees stop growing on mountains?

Above a certain height the growing season is too short and cool for trees to grow new wood. Wind, snow and avalanches also limit them. This height is called the tree line.

How was the Matterhorn formed?

The rocks were pushed up when Africa and Europe collided to form the Alps, and glaciers then carved the peak from several sides into a sharp pyramid called a horn.

What animals live in alpine meadows in the Alps?

Typical animals include Alpine ibex, chamois, Alpine marmots, red foxes, mountain hares, golden eagles, ravens and alpine choughs.

How is climate change affecting the Alps?

Glaciers are shrinking fast, permafrost is thawing, snow cover is shorter and plants and animals are moving upwards, leaving less space for species that already live near the tops.

Flower-filled pastures above the tree line, under the most famous peak in the Alps

Alpine meadow

3D landscape · Riffelalp below the Matterhorn, Switzerland

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Above the forests of every high mountain range lies a belt of open grassland and dwarf shrubs, bright with flowers for a few weeks each summer. In the Alps these pastures are called alps or alpages, and cattle have been driven up to them in summer for thousands of years. In this app you can land on a meadow near Riffelalp above Zermatt, Switzerland, and explore it in interactive 3D, with the pyramid of the Matterhorn rising ahead, European larches and Swiss stone pines at the edge of the forest, and gentians, edelweiss and other alpine flowers among the grass.

Alpine ibex pick their way across the rocky slopes, marmots whistle from their burrows, ravens tumble on the wind and golden eagles circle overhead. The scene shows how life adapts to thin air, cold nights, strong ultraviolet light and a growing season that may last only two to three months.

Key facts

Model setting: Riffelalp, above Zermatt, SwitzerlandMeadows and larch–stone pine forest at roughly 2,200 m, facing the Matterhorn
Matterhorn: 4,478 mOn the border of Switzerland and Italy; its pyramid was carved by glaciers on all sides
Tree line in the Alps: About 1,800–2,400 mHigher in the dry, sunny central Alps around Zermatt, lower near the edges of the range
Treeline trees: European larch and Swiss stone pineLarch drops its needles every autumn; stone pine keeps them through winter
Alpine ibex: Saved from near extinctionReduced to a single population in the Gran Paradiso area in the 1800s; reintroduced across the Alps
Alpine marmot: Hibernates about 6 monthsFamilies share burrows and whistle to warn each other of eagles and foxes
Growing season: About 2–4 monthsShorter with every hundred metres of height
Air pressure: About 0.77 barRoughly three quarters of sea-level pressure at 2,200 m

Where alpine meadows are

Alpine zones exist on high mountains on every continent, from the Alps, Pyrenees and Caucasus to the Rockies, Andes, Himalaya and the mountains of East Africa. The word alpine comes from the Alps, where the high summer pastures are themselves called alps. The meadows begin around the tree line, the height above which trees can no longer grow into upright forest, and continue up to the zone of bare rock, snow and ice.

Zermatt lies at the head of the Mattertal valley in the Swiss canton of Valais, surrounded by many of the highest peaks in the Alps. Because the valley is sheltered from rain by the mountains around it, it is unusually dry and sunny, and both the tree line and the farming limits are among the highest in the Alps.

How the Alps and the Matterhorn formed

The Alps were raised by the collision between the African and European plates, which began closing an ancient ocean, the Tethys, more than 100 million years ago. Slices of rock were stacked on top of each other in huge folds called nappes. The upper part of the Matterhorn is made of rocks that originally belonged to the African side of the collision, sitting on top of rocks from the European side and from the old ocean floor.

The sharp pyramid is the work of ice. Glaciers cut back into the mountain from several sides at once, carving bowl-shaped hollows called cirques until only steep faces and sharp ridges were left. A peak shaped like this is called a horn, after the Matterhorn itself.

Life with thin air, sun and snow

With every 100 m of height the air cools by roughly 0.6 °C. At 2,200 m, summer days can be warm in the sun, but nights are cold and frost can come at any time. The thin air lets through more ultraviolet light than at sea level, so many plants have hairy or waxy leaves and deep colours that help protect them.

Snow is both a danger and a blanket. It insulates the ground from the deepest cold, and many plants spend more than half the year under it, ready to start growing the moment it melts. Avalanches keep some slopes clear of trees, which is one reason meadows and forest form patchworks on mountainsides.

Larches, stone pines and alpine flowers

Near the tree line around Zermatt the forest is made of European larch and Swiss stone pine (arolla pine). Larch is unusual among conifers because it drops its needles each autumn, after turning gold. Stone pine keeps its needles in bundles of five, survives temperatures far below freezing and depends on spotted nutcrackers, which bury its seeds as winter stores and forget some of them.

Above and among the trees grow alpine roses (a rhododendron), juniper, bilberry and a rich mix of grasses and flowers. Trumpet gentians and spring gentians are an intense blue; edelweiss is covered in white woolly hairs that reduce water loss and protect against strong sunlight. Many alpine plants are perennials that grow slowly for years, storing food in roots to flower quickly when summer comes.

Edelweiss

Edelweiss became a symbol of the Alps and of mountaineering, and was picked so heavily in the past that it became rare in accessible places. It is now protected in many areas.

Ibex, marmots and eagles

The Alpine ibex is a wild goat with huge, ridged backward-curving horns in the males. Ibex were hunted almost to extinction, surviving only around Gran Paradiso in Italy in the 19th century. Thanks to protection and reintroductions they now live again across the Alps. They climb steep rock with ease and often come down to meadows in early summer to feed on fresh grass.

Alpine marmots are large ground squirrels that live in family groups and dig deep burrows. They spend the short summer eating and fattening up, then hibernate for about half the year. A sharp whistle warns the colony of danger; golden eagles, which nest on cliffs and hunt across open slopes, are one of their main predators. Chamois, ravens, alpine choughs and red foxes are also common.

People, pastures and a warming climate

Many alpine meadows are partly shaped by people. For centuries farmers have moved cattle, sheep and goats up to high pastures in summer, a tradition called transhumance, which UNESCO recognised in 2023 as intangible cultural heritage of several European countries. Grazing and mowing keep some meadows open that would otherwise slowly become shrubland or forest.

Mountains are warming faster than the global average. Alpine glaciers have lost a large share of their volume since the mid-1800s, permafrost in rock faces is thawing and making rockfall more common, and the tree line and many plants are slowly moving upwards. Species already living near the summits have little room left to move.

Surprising facts about Alpine meadow

The top of the Matterhorn is made of rock that originally belonged to the African side of the collision that built the Alps.
European larch is a conifer that loses all its needles every autumn, turning the mountainsides gold first.
Swiss stone pines depend on a bird, the spotted nutcracker, to plant their seeds by burying them as winter food.
The Alpine ibex once survived in only one small area of the Alps; all of today's ibex across the range descend from that population.
Alpine marmots hibernate for about half the year, slowing their heartbeat to just a few beats per minute.
At 2,200 m the air pressure is only about three quarters of what it is at sea level.

Frequently asked questions

What is an alpine meadow?: An alpine meadow is open grassland with many flowering plants high on a mountain, around and above the tree line, where it is too cold for forests to grow.
Why do trees stop growing on mountains?: Above a certain height the growing season is too short and cool for trees to grow new wood. Wind, snow and avalanches also limit them. This height is called the tree line.
How was the Matterhorn formed?: The rocks were pushed up when Africa and Europe collided to form the Alps, and glaciers then carved the peak from several sides into a sharp pyramid called a horn.
What animals live in alpine meadows in the Alps?: Typical animals include Alpine ibex, chamois, Alpine marmots, red foxes, mountain hares, golden eagles, ravens and alpine choughs.
How is climate change affecting the Alps?: Glaciers are shrinking fast, permafrost is thawing, snow cover is shorter and plants and animals are moving upwards, leaving less space for species that already live near the tops.

Keep exploring

The landscapes in Ember’s Universe are procedural 3D scenes modelled on real places. The landforms, plants and light follow the real thing, but the details are generated, not mapped.

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