Frailejon Highlands

Frailejon Highlands is an original illustration set in Colombian Páramo. It lies in equatorial latitudes, where the climate is oceanic — mild, wet through the year.

Countless rosettes of pale fuzzy leaves crown thick stems skirted in dead foliage, repeating across a wet dark slope. Dense low cloud sits on the ground and the light is cold, saturated and shadowless. Nothing grows tall anywhere in the frame.

Why does the plant keep its dead leaves around the stem?

The dead leaves are not neglect — the plant retains them as insulation around the stem against nightly frost. The fuzz on the living rosette does the same job and traps fog moisture, which the plant releases slowly into the soil. That combination of daily freeze, permanent cloud and no seasons belongs to tropical mountains above the tree line.

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