Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map

Vegetation Units

Eskimonaesset, North Greenland, C. Bay.
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B1. Cryptogam, herb barren

Dry to wet barren landscapes with very sparse, very low-growing plant cover. Scattered herbs, lichens, mosses, and liverworts. Subzone A and B, some C at higher elevations.

Detailed Description

Dry to wet barren desert-like landscapes mainly in Subzone A and on some coarse-grained, often calcareous sediments in subzones B and C. Sparse (2-40%) horizontal plant cover, and very low vertical structure (generally ‹ 2 cm tall) with a single layer of plants where they occur. Dry herb barrens composed of few scattered vascular plants are present over much of the landscape. Snow-flush communities are often a conspicuous component, forming dark streaks on the otherwise barren lands, composed largely of bryophytes and cryptogamic crusts. In upland areas, vascular plant cover is generally very sparse (‹ 2%), mainly scattered individual plants often in crevices between stones or small (‹ 50 cm diameter) cryoturbated polygons. Sedges (Cyperaceae), dwarf shrubs, and peaty mires are normally absent.

Representative syntaxa

Communities of the classes: Thlaspietea rotundifolii Br.-Bl. et al. 1947, (e.g., Papaveretum dahliani Hofm. 1968), Salicetea herbaceae Br.-Bl. et al. 1947, (e.g., Phippsietum algidae-concinnae Nordh. 1943).

Dominant Plants:

The most common vascular plants are cushion forbs, graminoids, lichens, mosses, liverworts, and cyanobacteria.

• Cushion forbs:
  • Papaver dahlianum ssp. polare
  • Draba
  • Potentilla hyparctica^a
  • Saxifraga oppositifolia^a
• Graminoids:
  • Alopecurus alpinus
  • Deschampsia borealis/brevifolia
  • Poa abbreviata
  • Puccinellia angustata
  • Phippsia
  • Luzula nivalis^a
  • L. confusa^a
• Lichens:
  • Caloplaca
  • Lecanora
  • Ochrolechia
  • Pertusaria
  • Mycobilimbia
  • Collema
  • Thamnolia
  • Cetraria
  • Flavocetraria
  • Cetrariella
  • Stereocaulon
• Mosses:
  • Racomitrium
  • Schistidium
  • Orthothecium^a
  • Ditrichum^a
  • Distichium^a
  • Encalypta
  • Pohlia
  • Bryum
  • Polytrichum
• Liverworts:
  • e.g., Gymnomitrion
  • Cephaloziella
• Cyanobacteria

^a=acidic, ⁿ=non-acidic