Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - I. Physical Geography - 4. Vegetation. By Lector A. Nilsson, Ph. D., Institute of Forestry, Stockholm
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
THE VEGETATION.
53
Photo. V. Odilbiro.
In tracts where the soil throughout summer is kept moist by melting
snowwater the dwarf-willow (Salix herbacea L.) is spread over the ground like a
thick carpet in which a number of plants, as Ranunculus nivalis L. and
gla-cialis L., Saxifraga stellaris L., Sibbaldia procumbens L., and others, are met
with. Where the snow melts away before midsummer, as it does on the largest
part of the region, leaving the ground dry, the alpine heaths are found,
characterized by a bottom-covering of lichens and mosses and a thin upper one of dwarf
shrubs, as alpine heath (Phyllodoce cærulea Bab.), trailing Azalea (Azalea
procumbens L.), black bearberry (Arctostaphylus alpina Spreng.), Diapensia lapponica
L., common crowberry (Empetrum nigrum L.) and red whortleberry or cowberry
(Vaccinium vitis idaea L.). Among these shrubs grasses are found interspersed,
such as highland rush (Juncus trifidus L.), spiked wood-rush (Luzula spicata
DC.), and plants and herbs like Polygonum viviparum L. and Trientalis europæa
L. The monotony is broken here and there by depressions covered by a carpet of
dark sedges (Carex), but the lakes lack flowering plants.
In the lower parts of the alpine region, especially in the vicinity of
mountain streams, thick willow-copses occur composed of Salix lanata L., glauca L., and
lapponum L., interspersed with Salix phylicifolia L. In drier places they are
superseded by dwarf-birch (Betula nana L.).
The Birch region is characterized by woods made np of common
birch (Betula odorata Bechst.) with solitary aspen (Populus tremula
L.) and mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia L.). This region forms a
very irregular belt below the Alpine, which belt farthest north, where
the birch region is best developed, is about 30 kilometers broad, but it
gradually becomes narrower, and is farthest south only a few hundred
On the Lule River.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
