An account of the physical geography of Iceland : with special reference to the plant life / [Thorwald Thoroddsen].

  • Thoroddsen, Thorwald.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: An account of the physical geography of Iceland : with special reference to the plant life / [Thorwald Thoroddsen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    122/162 (page 306)
    Empetram nigrum — a miserable stunted specimen of each of these two species, 2 and 272 cm. in height respectively. On the plateau towards the east: Kjarrdalsheidi near Lon (665 metres), Salix herbacea, Polygonum viviparum, Oxyria digyna, Ranunculus glacialis, all small and stunted. Markalda (961 metres) near the eastern edge of Vatnajokull, Polygonum viviparum, Armeria maritima, Salix herbacea, Saxifraga nivalis. Litla Snsefell (1133 metres), Salix her- bacea, Oxyria digyna, Arabis alpina, Ranunculus glacialis. On Hlid- arfjall near Myvatn (790 metres) where I was together with Gron- lund in 1876, we noted the following plants: —Alsine biflora, Draba nivalis, Saxifraga cernua, Cassiope hypnoides, Pedicularis flammea, Oxyria digyna 7 All that is situated outside the glacier-bearing mountains in the centre of Iceland at an altitude of 650—1100 metres may justly be regarded as a desert; seen both from a geological and geographical point of view the country here is desert-like in character, and in spite of considerable precipitation the plants suffer from drought, because the water disappears immediately over large areas owing to the porous nature of the rocky substratum — lava, tuff, volcanic gravel and sand. The few plants which grow in these wastes occur widely scattered; at a height of 900—1000 metres above sea-level a few lichens and mosses are seen only here and there, and at long intervals a few specimens of the hardy Armeria maritima, Silene maritima and Polygonum viviparum and in places where blown sand occurs a few tufts of Elymus arenarius; at a height of 1000—1100 metres one may ride for miles without coming across a single pha- nerogam. In addition to want of water, the frequent storms, often of sand and snow, check plant-growth during the short summer; moreover, a rather dry Fohn wind often blows across the wastes north of the great Jokulls, having already deposited its moisture upon the great plateaus of the Jokulls. Somewhat lower down, at an altitude of 700—900 metres, a few more species are met with as scattered individuals, e. g. Silene acaulis, Arabis alpina and A. petrcea, and here and there a few haulms of Luzula arcuata, Poa glauca or Festuca ovina; moreover, a few scattered cushions or tufts of lichens (Stereocaulon) or mosses (Grimmia) occur. Scattered here and there in these extensive wastes are sometimes 1 See also Chr. Gronlund’s list of plants from Heljardalsheidi and Hrafn- tinnuhryggur, and the list of plants collected by Johnstrup on Dyngjufjoll (Karak- teristik af Plantevieksten paa Island, 1884, pp. 28 and 29).