Nov., 1918] Recovery of Vegetation at Kodiak 



43 



HORSETAIL VERY IMPORTANT AS THE FIRST GROUND COVER. 



At present the former bogs remain quite bare or are grown 

 up with Equisetum arvense. In most cases the Equisetum 

 appears to have been restricted to the edges of the bog before 

 the eruption. In such bogs the middle remains bare ash, but 

 the horsetail is sending long runners toward the unoccupied areas 

 and will soon cover them. (See pictures below). While the old 

 bogs are perhaps the most conspicuous examples around Kodiak 

 of the ability of the horsetail to cover ground which would 

 otherwise have remained bare, there are many other areas 



Photograph by R. F. Griggs 



EQUISETUM SENDING RUNNERS INTO BARE ASH. 



Equisetum has occupied large areas which otherwise would have become dunes 



of drifting ash. Its importance in the re vegetation of the 



country cannot be overestimated. 



where it was almost the only survival, as was brought out in an 

 earlier paper (Griggs 2 , 1915). It was by far the most important 

 species of the flora in providing a new plant cover on the ash. 



Its importance in the recovery of the country can hardly 

 be overestimated, for over large areas it was for a long time the 

 only ground cover. This was even more conspicuous in certain 

 parts of the mainland than at Kodiak, for here there were 

 literally many square miles of horsetail in pure stand. Although 

 this cover of horsetail was of little value in itself, its service in 

 protecting the ash surface from wind was of the greatest impor- 



