The very thin soils here support populations of one nationally rare species, Cheddar bedstraw (Galium fleurotii) and four nationally scarce species, pale St John's wort (Hypericum montanum), sea storksbill (Erodium maritimum), dwarf mouse-ear (Cerastium pumilum) and spring cinquefoil (Potentilla tabernaemontani).
The alpine habitat above 4,000 metres consists of compact rosette and cushion herbs, such as Ranunculus, Potentilla, Gentiana, and Epilobium, grasses (Poa and Deschampsia), bryophytes, and lichens.
Potentilla | Potentilla erecta | Potentilla cristae | ''Potentilla hickmanii'' is found on Montara |
The larvae feed on various herbaceous plants, including Potentilla, Thymus, Andromeda polifolia and possibly Empetrum nigrum, Rubus chamaemorus and Vaccinium uliginosum.
The subcommunity also has many broad-leaved herbs including Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), Tormentil (Potentilla erecta), Devils-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) and Betony (Stachys officinalis).
It is a common grass on grassy balds in the southern Appalachians, where it occurs with redtop (Agrostis alba), timothy (Phleum pratense), Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa), Kentucky bluegrass (P. pratensis), red fescue (Festuca rubra), five-fingers (Potentilla canadensis), and sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella).
Above the shrublands are alpine meadows which support a variety of herbaceous plants, including species of Alchemilla, Androsace, Anemone, Diapensia, Draba, Gentiana, Impatiens, Leontopodium, Meconopsis, Pedicularis, Potentilla, Primula, Rhododendron, Saussurea, Saxifraga, Sedum, and Viola.
These include crested cinquefoil or crested potentilla (Potentilla cristae), Siskiyou fireweed (Epilobium siskiyouense), and McDonald's rock cress (Arabis blepharophylla var. macdonaldiana), a perennial found in conifer forests of California and Oregon.
Potentilla alchemilloides, the Alchemilla-leaved Cinquefoil, is a species of cinquefoil (genus Potentilla) native to the Pyrenees.
Potentilla johnstonii is a rare species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common name sagebrush cinquefoil.
The subcommunity also has many broad-leaved herbs including Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), Tormentil (Potentilla erecta), Devils-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) and Betony (Stachys officinalis).