Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Plant Life, by H. H. Gran
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partly upon their height above the sea, partly on their distance
from the coast. In the inland valleys, there are birch-trees up to
1600 and 2300 feet above the sea, while along the coast they are
rarely more than 1300 feet. Above these limits, however, the birch
is often found in the form of a shrub, together with willows and
dwarf birch.
In the birch slopes there is often a luxuriant, varied
vegetation of many different species. These are to some extent southern
forms, which here have their extreme out-posts to the north, to
some extent arctic plants, most of which, in Nordland and
Finmarken, go right down to the sea.
The richest flora is found in the inland fjord valleys, both
the southern forms and the arctic plants preferring the continental
climate. In the valleys of the interior the vegetation is often very
luxuriant. In Tysfjord, for instance, the wild raspberry (Rubus
idæus) and strawberry (Fragaria vesca) bear abundance of fruit
nearly every summer, and the fruit has an aroma that is quite
unknown in lower latitudes.
The arctic plants are most numerously represented in the
valleys, where the sub-stratum consists of loose mica-schist.
Saltdalen, Maalselvdalen, Lyngen, Alten and Sydvaranger are localities
where the arctic flora is developed in special abundance. On the
mountains here are found, in the main, the species that occur on
the Dovre Mountains, although there are a few extreme arctic plants
that have their southern limit in Nordland, e. g. two species of
Gentiana, G. involucrata and G. serrata — the latter has large,
deep blue flowers — two peculiar Rhinanthaceæ, Pedicularis hirsuta
and flammea, and the pretty yellow Ranunculus sulphureus.
Rubus arcticus, the arctic raspberry, is an east country plant
indigenous to Finland and northern Sweden. In Norway it is
found almost exclusively in the most northerly parts, in valleys
where the watershed on the frontier is rather low, so that it has
had the opportunity of migrating thither in comparatively recent
times. It occurs in several places in abundance, but does not bear
fruit every year.
In the coast regions of Nordland and Finmarken, the flora is
very uniform and poor as regards species. The Western European
species, which gave to the west coast flora its peculiar character,
are almost entirely absent, as are also the more sensitive mountain
plants and south country plants. The species forming the bulk of
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