Vegetation of North Greenland

Abstract

As Greenland extends from 6o0N. to about 83.5'N., the conditions for vegetative life are very different in its southern subarctic part, where there are copses of birch (Betula pubescens), and in the most northern portion, which supports the most northern vegetation. The present paper deals only with the vegetation of North Greenland, that is, Greenland north of 760N. The botanical knowledge of this part of Greenland has increased greatly during the last two decades, due partly to American explorations, but mostly to the information obtained by Danish expeditions. Usually Arctic expeditions have included no trained botanists, but one Danish expedition, the Second Thule Expedition under command of KNUD RASMUSSEN in i9i6-i9i8, was an exception. Dr. THORULD WULFF, a well known Swedish botanist, accompanied this expedition, which explored the most northern coast of Greenland facing the polar sea. Dr. WULFF succumbed to the hardships of the expedition as land was reached, after having traversed the inland ice just south of the Humboldt Glacier. He left a small collection of plants, made with wonderful energy under the hardest conditions, and also a diary containing many botanical and meteorological observations. It has been the writer's privilege to identify the higher plants of this collection and to make use of his diary. The results are embodied in a recently published paper,' of which the first part of the present article is to some extent a resume. It is rather surprising that this flora contains not less than seventy species of higher plants, that is, flowering plants and vascular cryptogams, in spite of the poor conditions under which they live. If we examine the main factors of importance to plant life, we find the following points of interest. i. In the short portion of the year during which plants are able