Quartz-rich rock, when it weathers, produces soils that are poor in the nutrients — nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and various trace minerals — that most plants need to grow.

The thin, highly acidic, nutrient-poor soils of the Roraima summit are among the most challenging plant growth conditions in South America.

This creates a paradox.

The summit of Roraima receives enormous amounts of rain — one of the essential requirements for plant growth.

But the soils that rain falls on are nearly devoid of the nutrients that plants need to use that water productively.

The result is a landscape where the normal rules of plant ecology do not apply — where evolution has been forced to find unconventional solutions.