THE ELEMENTS AND AFFINITIES OF THE ICELANDIC FLORA 301 



found once in a single locality each and never again. During the last years, 

 however, some few of the species mentioned from Iceland in the plant hsts 

 from the nineteenth century, but excluded from the Icelandic flora by all later 

 authors, have been rediscovered in Iceland. Besides that, about 140 accident- 

 ally introduced species have been recorded from Iceland, and most likely 

 some of them will later become naturahzed. About 290 of these 440 species, 

 or ca. 66 per cent, are found also in Greenland; some of them are without 

 doubt introduced in Greenland and they may be so in Iceland, too. Most of 

 the Icelandic species, not found in Greenland, are European or Eurasiatic 

 Boreal taxa. 



About 250 of the Icelandic plants, ca. 57 per cent are found also in the 

 Faeroes. The majority of the Icelandic plants, ca. 85 per cent, grow in the 

 British Isles as well, whereas the remaining 15 per cent comprise mostly 

 Arctic species and some species with a western distribution. Not less than 426 

 of the Icelandic species of vascular plants, or ca. 97 per cent, are found also 

 in Scandinavia, a few of them, however, being represented in Iceland by 

 other races or subspecies than in Scandinavia. Ten species, or 2.3 per cent 

 of the vascular plants of Iceland, are western species, which are not found on 

 the European continent nor in the British Isles. When the genera Taraxacum 

 and Hieracium are excluded, the endemic element of the Icelandic vascular 

 flora is very small, and is entirely composed of "species" of other genera 

 reproducing by apomixis, like Alc/iemilla, some varieties and subspecies of 

 taxa with a much wider distribution area, as well as some Euphrasia species. 



In his work on the Amphi- Atlantic plants, Hulten (1958) enumerates 278 

 species. Of these, 146 belong to the Icelandic flora. EarUer, Hulten (1950) had 

 divided all the vascular plants of northwest Europe into 48 distribution 

 groups. It is possible to fit into these groups all the 426 Icelandic species also 

 occurring in Scandinavia. Using Hulten's classification, the Icelandic flora 

 can be divided as follows: 118 species, ca. 27 per cent of the Icelandic vascular 

 plants, belong to the Boreal-circumpolar plants (Hulten's Groups 16, 17, 29, 

 30, 31, 32, and 33); 90 species, ca. 20 per cent, belong to the European- 

 Eurasiatic plants (Groups 12, 13, 14, 15, 25, 26, 27, 28), which are found in 

 the Boreal region of Eurasia; 71 species, ca. 16 per cent, belong to the Arctic- 

 alpine-circumpolar plants (Groups 6, 7, 8, 9), while 14 species, or ca. 3 per 

 cent, belong to the Arctic-circumpolar plants (Groups 1 and 2). The Amphi- 

 Atlantic plants (Groups 10 and 11), comprise 32 species, or ca. 1 per cent of 

 the vascular plants of Iceland. European coastal, Atlantic, and Sub-Atlantic 

 plants (Groups 18, 19, 20) comprise 19 species, 4.3 per cent; and Circumpolar 

 coastal and Sub-oceanic plants (Groups 21 and 22) comprise 10 species, or 

 2.3 per cent of the Icelandic vascular flora. Group 41, including plants with 

 two or more widely separated areas of distribution, comprises 1 3 species, or 

 ca. 3 per cent of the flora. Group 46, including species strongly dispersed by 

 man, comprises 29 species in Iceland, or 6.6 per cent; and Group 48, including 



