Subarctic and alpine dwarf willow scrub

[Salix] scrub composed of species that rarely exceed 1.5 m in height. Dwarf willow scrub is well developed in boreal and arctic mountains and in subarctic lowlands. In mountains of the nemoral and warm-temperate zones, stands of dwarf willow scrub are of much smaller extent and are charactistic of late-lying snow patches. They occur in the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians and Caucasus, and very locally to the south in the Paeonian mountains, Sierra Nevada, Cordillera Central, Monti Sibillini and Abruzzi. They occur locally in the Scottish Highlands and in the Sudeten.