Alpine Azalea

While hiking the ridge which leads back to the road from the M. Gurr lake hike last weekend, I noticed the alpine azalea's (Loiseleuria procumbens) were just coming into full flower.  These are not a signifiicant looking little shrub.  You only notice them when they are flowering, otherwise you have to get down on your hands and knees and look hard to see the small vines which don't come more than a centimetre off the ground and have very tiny leaves.

When they are flowering though in masses, the pretty pink flowers are quite showy and attractive. They don`t seem to need long to flower once the snow leaves, because this flowering bunch was very close to patches of snow that remain. Grizzly