Dwarf willow

Twisted stems knee-high, a mat of five squat round clumps of grey-green leaves.

Where it grows

Land	How many of the trees
Tundra	Half the trees, stunted by the cold
By water on the tundra	All the waterside trees

Trees of a kind keep together in stands about 60 m across.

Through the year

It leafs out in spring, its bare twigs budding green first. In autumn its leaves turn butter-yellow to gold, each tree in its own time, then fall pixel by pixel until the crown is bare twigs. It stands bare through the winter.

In play

Its trunk stops men and horses, who go round it. Wildfire leaves it black and bare, and burnt or felled ground grows back over about four years.