The flora of the Faroe Islands consists of over 400 different plant species. Most of the lowland area is grassland and some is heather mainly Calluna vulgaris . The Faroese nature is characterized by the lack of trees, and resembles that of Connemara and Dingle in Ireland.
Among the numerous herbaceous flora that occur in the Faroe Islands is the marsh thistle, Cirsium palustre . [1]
There are no native forests in the Faroe Islands, and only a few woody plants occur. Findings of Betula pubescens trunks and branches in the soil, dated to c. 2300 BC, and the abundance of Corylus pollen in deep layers, suggest that at least some local stands of birch and hazel trees were present in the Faroe Islands, prior to human settlement.
Four species of willow are still present in the Faroe Islands: Salix herbacea is very common in the mountains, but the other three species: Salix phylicifolia , Salix lanata and Salix arctica are only to be found in a few places, due to heavy grazing by animals. Only one evergreen, Juniperus communis (the prostrate form) grows naturally in the Faroe Islands, and small populations are spread throughout the islands, though for some reason juniper is very common on Svínoy Island.
The extreme oceanic climate, with winds whipping vast quantities of sea salt into the air, makes the islands very unfavourable to trees, though a few species from South America have been introduced since the 1970s. One outstanding for its beauty and for having resisted strong storms and cool summers is the monkey-puzzle tree from Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Trees from the Magellanic subpolar forest of Tierra del Fuego: Drimys winteri , Maytenus magellanica , Embothrium coccineum , Nothofagus antarctica , Nothofagus pumilio , and Nothofagus betuloides , have thrived too, in this cold oceanic climate. In 1979, 6000 small Nothofagus plants were transferred from Tierra del Fuego to the Faroe Islands, making it the biggest Nothofagus population in Europe. Species from the Alaskan coastline and islands have also adapted well in the Faroe Islands, especially Pinus contorta , Picea sitchensis , Salix alaxensis , Populus trichocarpa and Alnus sinuata . The biggest Alaskan pine tree (Pinus contorta) in Europe (in width, not in height), is to be found in the Selatrað plantation in the Faroe Islands.
Generally, introduced tree and plant species from the oceanic climates of coastal Alaska, New Zealand, Tierra del Fuego and Tasmania are adapted to Faroe, while introduced non native species from the more continental climates of Scandinavia and the rest of Northern Europe do not show that virtue because of intolerance to the wind and the lack of summer heat. [2]
Lady's Mantle ( Alchemilla mollis ), first introduced as a garden plant, has become notoriously invasive and hard to get rid of. [3] Though some few localities have met with success in combating it, it seems to spread further every year, eliciting fears that it might exterminate some of the local flora if drastic measures are not taken.
Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, with an area of 48,100 km2 (18,572 sq mi), and a group of many islands, including Cape Horn and Diego Ramírez Islands. Tierra del Fuego is divided between Chile and Argentina, with the latter controlling the eastern half of the main island and the former the western half plus the islands south of Beagle Channel and the southernmost islands. The southernmost extent of the archipelago is just north of latitude 56°S.
Cirsium is a genus of perennial and biennial flowering plants in the Asteraceae, one of several genera known commonly as thistles. They are more precisely known as plume thistles. These differ from other thistle genera in having feathered hairs to their achenes. The other genera have a pappus of simple unbranched hairs.
The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions. The tree line is sometimes distinguished from a lower timberline, which is the line below which trees form a forest with a closed canopy.
Pinus contorta, with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, but is rare in lowland rain forests. Like all pines, it is an evergreen conifer.
The Magellanic subpolar forests are a terrestrial ecoregion of southernmost South America, covering parts of southern Chile and Argentina, and are part of the Neotropical realm. It is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion, and contains the world's southernmost forests.
Cirsium vulgare, the spear thistle, bull thistle, or common thistle, is a species of the Asteraceae genus Cirsium, native throughout most of Europe, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa. It is also naturalised in North America, Africa, and Australia and is an invasive weed in some areas. It is the national flower of Scotland.
Cirsium palustre, the marsh thistle or European swamp thistle, is a herbaceous biennial flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.
Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego also formerly Isla de Xátiva is an island near the southern tip of South America from which it is separated by the Strait of Magellan. The western portion (61.4%) of the island is in Chile, while the eastern portion is in Argentina. It forms the major landmass in an extended group of islands or archipelago also known as Tierra del Fuego.
Nothofagus antarctica is a deciduous tree or shrub native to southern Chile and Argentina from about 36°S to Tierra del Fuego, where it grows mainly in the diminishing temperate rainforest.
Nothofagus betuloides, Magellan's beech or guindo, is a tree native to southern Patagonia.
Equisetum palustre, the marsh horsetail, is a plant species belonging to the division of horsetails (Equisetopsida). It is widespread in cooler regions of North America and Eurasia.
The Juncus subnodulosus–Cirsium palustre fen-meadow is a plant association characteristically found on damp ground in portions of western Europe. This type of fen-meadow appears to have co-evolved with human agriculture in Europe since the earlier Holocene.
Carex disticha is a Eurasian species of sedge known as the brown sedge or, in North America, tworank sedge.
Philedonides lunana, also known as the heath tortrix and Walker’s Lanark tortrix, is a moth of the family Tortricidae. It was first described by Carl Peter Thunberg in 1784 and is found in most of Europe.
Cirsium vinaceum is a rare species of thistle known by the common name Sacramento Mountains thistle. It is endemic to Otero County, New Mexico, in the United States, where it is known only from the Sacramento Mountains. The plant can be found in six canyon systems in a southern section of this mountain range spanning about 32 kilometers. It is rare because it is limited to a specific type of mountain wetland which is both naturally uncommon and threatened by a number of forces. The plant was federally listed as threatened in 1987.
Tierra del Fuego National Park is a national park on the Argentine part of the island of Tierra del Fuego, within Tierra del Fuego Province in the ecoregion of Patagonic Forest and Altos Andes, a part of the subantarctic forest. Established on 15 October 1960 under the Law 15.554 and expanded in 1966, it was the first shoreline national park to be established in Argentina.
The Vatnsmýrin Nature Reserve is a protected moorland in Reykjavík, Iceland. The reserve provides a water source for Tjörnin Lake and is a nesting ground for birds. It borders the Nordic House and the University of Iceland. The area within the Reserve including drains and fences, and measures 37,026 square metres (398,540 sq ft). Eighty-three species of vascular plants are documented. Biodiversity has been inhibited due to invasive animals and plants as well as industrial waste.
The Bosque Andino Patagónico is a type of temperate to cold forest located in southern Chile and western Patagonia in Argentina at the southern end of South America. The climate here is influenced by humid air masses moving in from the Pacific Ocean which lose most of their moisture as they rise over the Andes. The flora is dominated by trees, usually of the genus Nothofagus.
The Faroe Islands boreal grasslands ecoregion covers all of the territory of the Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 islands in the North Atlantic, roughly equidistant between Scotland, Norway, and Iceland. The ground cover is mostly grassland and dwarf shrub heath, the remainder is bare ground or sparse vegetation. There are no forests on the islands.