Azorella aretioides

Native to Costa Rica and the Andes from Colombia to northern Peru, this perennial subshrub forms dense, low cushions in high-mountain páramo vegetation. Tiny yellow flowers appear across its surface. At Antisana volcano in Ecuador, it grows between about 14,400 and 15,400 feet. At the higher elevations, its cushions help other alpine plants establish, apparently by increasing the moisture and nutrient content of the soil beneath them. Other small plants can grow within the cushions. Photographed in Ecuador.