Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Plant Life, by H. H. Gran
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pine. however, predominating on dry ground, and going somewhat
higher up the mountains than the spruce can grow. Among the
conifers there is always a sprinkling of birches (Betula odorata),
rowan-tree (Sorbus aucuparia) and aspen (Populus tremula).
In the lowest parts, up to about 1600 feet above the sea,
there is also a number of Central-European deciduous trees here
and there among the conifers. On talus slopes and warm hills,
a luxuriant growth of oak (Quercus pedunculata), ash (Fraxinus
excelsior), lime (Tilia parvifolia), maple (Acer platanoides), elm
(Ulmus montana), and lowland birch (Betula verrucosa) may be
met with. These trees are secondary to the conifers, and only
occasionally form small woods; but they nevertheless give to the
lowland flora its characteristic stamp. A number of herbaceous
plants are found together with them, which also belong to the
continental parts of Central Europe, and which, in Norway, are
only found in the lowlands of the south-east. As examples we
may name the blue hepatica or liver leaf (Anemone hepatica),
which carpets the woods in April and May with its flowers,
as well as other perennial spring flowers such as Primula
officinalis, Viola mirabilis, Saxifraga granulata, Orobus vernus,
Glechoma hederaceum. Here too are several of our rarest orchids,
which are only found on warm dry hills in the south-east, such
as Ophrys myodes, Cephalanthera rubra, Neottia nidus avis.
The late Norwegian phytogeographer, Axel Blytt, has
called this zone of vegetation the region of «boreal»
(half-hardy) deciduous trees. It is characterised not only by the
deciduous trees and continental, southern, herbaceous plants, but also
by the fact that the cultivation of corn is mainly confined to this
region. Certain kinds of corn, e. g. barley, can indeed ripen as
high as 2600 feet above the sea, but as the harvest is more
or less uncertain, there is not much corn cultivation done above
1600 feet.
Above the region of boreal deciduous trees, there is a zone
in which the conifers are almost alone in the field. It extends
to about 2600 feet above the sea, though the limit is not
everywhere equally high. It is highest in the most continental parts of
the country, in Østerdalen and Gudbrandsdalen. Here the conifers
so greatly predominate, that they pretty well dislodge all plants
that cannot grow in their shade. In the spruce-woods themselves,
the flora is very deficient in species, but on the other hand, the
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