Introduction

Despite recent interest in alpine ecology, we have little information on anatomy of alpine plants. This is as true of tropical alpine plants as it is of those from temperate mountain areas. The reasons for the lack of studies in anatomy of tropical alpine plants are perhaps surprising.

First, one can cite the tendency for plant anatomists to work little on comparative problems and, when they do, to work in terms of particular taxonomic groups and to express their data in systematic terms rather than in ecological ones. To be sure, interest in ecological plant anatomy has increased in the latter half of the 20th century, and one can cite more studies concerning tropical alpine plants in recent years. The curious climatic regimes of high equatorial mountains make anatomical adaptations of especial interest, as will be seen from the relatively few examples cited in this chapter. Adaptations to frost and to drought are central in tropical plants, but these adaptations are different from those in plants of extremely cold or extremely dry regions.

A second reason for lack of studies on anatomy of tropical alpine species is a by-product of the working habits characteristic of biologists. Ecologists, unless highly theoretical in orientation, tend to use the outdoors as a laboratory. For the plant anatomist, laboratory work must be done indoors, and the habit of working both in the field and in the laboratory apparently does not come easily to most plant anatomists.