Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Some remarks upon the geographical distribution of vegetation in the colder Southern Hemisphere. By Carl Skottsberg. Botanist of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901—1903. With 2 maps, tabl. 8 and 9. - General survey of the austral of or palæooceanic (Engler) realm. - I. The antarctic dominion.
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DISTRIBUTION OF VEGETATION IN THE COLDER SOUTH HEMISPHERE. 4! I
I am able to give some descriptions which may give some idea
of the different types of vegetation, but I cannot say much about
the detailed composition of the flora, because the investigations of
my collections are, as yet, far from complete. l
There is a very well marked difference in the development of
Vegetation on the east and on the west coasts of Louis-Philip’s Land,
or rather, peninsula. This must depend chiefly upon the geological
difference of the röck, the east coast being built up of sediments
with layers of basaltic tuffs over them, the west by andine eruptives.
The vegetation of the east coast I know from Faulet Island,
Snow Hill and Cockburn Island. Paul e t Island consists of basaltic
röck; the lower parts of it are inhabited by hundreds and thousands
of penguins, which make all vegetable life impossible. On the upper
plateaus up to the top (385 m.), we find a poor vegetation, small carpets
of mosses, if we are lucky, but mostly single tufts of them; the
lichens are also not very well developed, excepting the Placodium
lucens Nyl. (?) on the steep slopes, which shines for a long distance
with its bright colour, and the Usnea sulphurea (Koen.) Th. M. Fr.,
which however I only got barren here; sometimes it grew abundantly.
The Snow Hill and Seymour Islands are formed by sediments,
sandstones, in the places I visited dissolved into sand, which was
traversed by the deep furrows of the springfloods. Here I found
almost the poorest flora conceivable, faint traces of mosstufts in
the crevices in the stationary röck rising out of the sand, and, also
on loose stones, two kinds of lichens with their body reduced to
almost nothing more than the apothecia, coming out of the narrow
cracks. One of them I believe was a Placodium, the other a Lecanora.
- To judge from the proofs collected on Cockburn by the
members of the station on Snow Hill, this island certainly shows about
the same flora as Faulet. The height of the first-mentioned is 450 m.
.- From Borchgrevink’s nunatak, at 65° 55’ S. Lat.,
Nordenskjöld brought back a minute lichen, which I believe to be the
most southern landplant known hitherto on this side of the pole.
The west coast, in comparison with the east, has a rich flora,
which I might illustrate with notes from some of my localities.
Distinctive is, that on ground free from ice and snow in summer,
the antarctic tundra - mosses, lichens and some few liverworts - is
1 Mr. Cardot has just communicated to me, that I have collected 23 antarctic
mosses, of which n are endemic; 10 are also found in South Georgia, 7 in the Magellan
territories and 6 in the boreal zone.
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