SURVIVAL OF PLANTS ON NUNATAKS IN NORWAY 



265 



Artemisia norvegica is one of them (Fig. 4). It is known from the Urals, 

 southern Norway, and a single locality in Scotland. This species is closely 

 related to Artemisia arctica of eastern Siberia and North America. Platanthera 

 oligantha occurs in the northern area only. As seen from the map the nearest 

 locality is found in the Yeniseysk area (Fig. 5). 



Fig. 5. The total distribution o^ Platanthera oligantha (after Hulten, 1958). 



It should furthermore be mentioned that an Arctic element is represented 

 in the southern area by Phippsia concinna without a single locality in northern 

 Scandinavia. On the other hand there are representatives in the northern area 

 of a European (or Eurasian) alpine element lacking locahties in the southern 

 area. Scirpus pumilus (Fig. 6) and Antennaria carpatica have this distribu- 

 tion. 



The Scandinavian Alpine flora is poor in endemic taxa, and this has been 

 taken as an argument against the theory of survival. Detailed taxonomic 

 investigations have brought to light more endemics than previously assumed. 

 In this connection we should notice that practically all the endemics belong to 

 the centric groups. Nannfeldt (1940) has shown that within the polymorphic 

 Poa arctica complex there are several endemic races, some of them southern 

 unicentric, others northern unicentric. 



The alpine poppies belonging to the Papaver radicatum complex have on 

 the whole a bicentric distribution. From the investigations by Nordhagen 

 (1931) it is elucidated that this complex is chiefly represented by southern and 

 northern unicentric endemics. I will return later to the problem of the southern 



