Tundra plants include grasses, hedges, herbs, and a few small shrubs. In between these plants are often lichens and mosses. The tundra also has a variety of colorful wildflowers that bloom for a short time, usually just a few months in summer.

Colourful wildflowers as shown here from last night's hike near Water Lake, bloom from the end of June to the end of July. There are many flowering plants like purple saxifrage, mountain avens, wild crocus, arctic poppies, buttercups, cinquefoil, moss campion, campanulas, arctic azaleas and arctic lupine

Other plants that grow are mosses, grasses, herbs, lichens and small shrubs like the dwarf willow and arctic willow.

Cushion plants grow in a low, tight clump that look like a cushion. The plants are able to trap pockets of warm air and for protection from the cold winds. Trapping heat like a greenhouse

The PURPLE SAXIFRAGE Saxifraga oppositifolia, is a cushion plant. It can grow on very rocky ground. It is one of the earliest plants to bloom. It often flowers while the snow is melting. The purple star-shaped flowers are about 1 cm wide. Many tiny leaves cover the plant's short stems. The flowers grow above the cushion of small leaves. The leaves are fringed with tiny hairs to capture heat.

Purple saxifrage is the floral emblem of Nunavut.

The purple saxifrage or purple mountain saxifrage is a species of edible plant that is very common all over the high Arctic and also some high mountainous areas further south, including northern Britain, the Alps and the Rocky Mountains. It is even known to grow in north Greenland, at 83°15'N, the most northerly plant locality in the world.

It is a low-growing, densely or loosely matted plant growing to 3–5 cm high, with somewhat woody branches of creeping or trailing habit close to the surface. The leaves are small, rounded, scale-like, opposite in 4 rows, with ciliated margins. The flowers are solitary on short stalks, petals purple or lilac, much longer than the calyx lobes. It is one of the very first spring flowers, continuing to flower during the whole summer in localities where the snow melts later. The flowers grow to about 0.5 inches in diameter.

It grows in all kinds of cold temperate to arctic habitats, from sea level up to 1000 m, in many places colouring the landscape. It is a popular plant in alpine gardens, though difficult to grow in warm climates.

MOSS CAMPION. The plant looks like a mossy green cushion with tiny pink flowers. The blossom is five petals on a very short stem. It can be found on rocks and in open cold areas.