Las Estrellas de las Nieves, or the Stars of the Snow, are plants native to the Sierra Nevada National Park and do not grow anywhere else in the world! They are unique to this region of Spain because the snow on the peaks of the mountains melts and travels down into the valleys, but the water partially freezes because of the year-round low temperatures that define the high-altitude weather in Sierra Nevada.
This plant gets its name La Estrella de las Nieves because the flowers look like snow-covered stars that grow very close to the ground. The plant is similar to a snowflake but has a green base color underneath the icy top of the leaves. As a result of how it looks, this plant is considered a symbol of the Sierra Nevada National Park.
When I first saw the plant, I immediately asked my hiking guide what it was because I had not seen anything like it before. At first, I thought it was frozen water because of the altitude we were at (about 10,000 feet up or over two miles high) but the star-shape of the plant made me curious. I thought the snow-star plants in the Sierra Nevada Park were an incredible aspect of nature when I first saw them.
