ANTARCTIC AND SUB-ANTARCTIC PLANT LIFE 

 AND SOME OF ITS PROBLEMS ^ 



R.N. Rudmose Brown 



Plant life in the Antarctic is necessarily confined to the edges of 

 the continent, the lofty mountain ranges, and the islands that lie near 

 the coast. The great ice sheet that covers the greater part of Antarctica 

 is a complete desert devoid of any form of animal or plant life. The 

 regions that experience true Antarctic climatic conditions lie ap- 

 proximately south of latitude 60° S.^ To the north of this parallel 

 lie the regions which may, for want of a better term, be called sub- 

 Antarctic, including numerous islands and island groups. South 

 Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, the Crozets, Kerguelen, and 

 others. The South Shetlands, the South Orkneys, the Balleny Islands, 

 and the islands of the Ross Sea are all within the Antarctic region. 



Poverty of Antarctic Flora as Compared 

 With That of the Arctic 



The Antarctic flora, thus defined, has been explored in various 

 places, and its general aspect is well known, although subsequent ex- 

 ploration will undoubtedly add a few species of cryptogams to the 

 list. Its poverty, compared with the flora of the same latitudes in 

 the North Polar Regions, is striking. The Arctic Regions support some 

 four hundred species of flowering plants, many of which flourish lux- 

 uriantly even in the north of Greenland : the Antarctic Regions sup- 

 port only two, both of which maintain a precarious hold and are 

 apparently at the extreme limit of their range. These species are a 

 grass {Deschampsia antarctica) and a small caryophyllaceous plant 

 {Colohanthus crassifolius) . The grass was discovered over a century 

 ago at the South Shetlands and was rediscovered this century on 

 the west of Graham Land between latitudes 65° and 68°. The other 

 plant was found along with the grass in several localities. Both grow 

 sparingly in dwarfed specimens and appear to have only vegetative 



1 On the topic of the present paper see also the writer's: Problems of Antarctic Plant Life (Scottish 

 National Antarctic Expedition: Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of S. Y. "Scotia " 



1902-1904, under the Leadership of W. S. Bruce, Vol. 3: Botany, pp. 3-20), Edinburgh, 1912 (ex- 

 panded from an earlier paper: Antarctic Botany: Its Present State and Future Problems, Scottish 

 Geogr. Mag., Vol. 22, 1906, pp. 473-484) and Chapter 12 (Polar Vegetation) of his "The Polar Regions: 

 A Physical and Economic Geography of the Arctic and Antarctic" (Methuen's Geographical Series), 

 London, 1927. 



2 Carl Skottsberg: Some Remarks Upon the Geographical Distribution of Vegetation in the Colder 

 Southern Hemisphere, Ymer, Vol. 25, 1905, pp. 402-427, with map, here reproduced as Fig. i. This 

 paper contains a^ useful bibliography of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic botany. 



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