Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: Hoy on July 15, 2013, 06:24:23 AM
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July 13th 2013:
The summer has been fine till now where I have been. But today I am heading for Svalbard to spend a week there. At the moment it is about the same temperature there as you have - and that is hot!
Some of the plants we spotted yesterday in Longyearbyen:
Papaver dahlianum
Ranunculus nivalis
Silene involucrata ssp furcata
Taraxacum arcticum
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8) First plants from Svalbard shown on the forum I think.
Thanks Trond. Will you have the chance to travel outside Longyearbyen?
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8) First plants from Svalbard shown on the forum I think.
I think you are correct, Ashley. And fine photos of fine plants too - thanks Trond.
This reminds me of two SRGC Journal articles on Svalbard - written by (then student) members of the club, Heather Dale and Johanna Leven :
Svalbard 1990, Dale, H. : 88 /347
My Expedition to Svalbard, Leven, J. : 120/100
Both these journals available online, of course. :)
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Thank you Maggi and Ashley.
We were outside Longyearbyen today - not far though as our speed is very slow when we look for plants! Had to bring two armed guards in case of polar bears. Some of us wish a bear to appear some don't! Tomorrow we are going by boats to another place to look for more plants (and birds etc for those interested).
Some from today - no Buddlejas! (A rather special one you show, John!)
Silene acaulis - guess which way is south!
Stellaria humifusa x2
Saxifraga cespitosa cespitosa yellow form (also called aurea)
Arenaria pseudofrigida
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Really wonderful plants Trond, in a wonderful place. I was hoping to make it to Tromso one day, and now I know I have to make it much further north.
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This reminds me of two SRGC Journal articles on Svalbard - written by (then student) members of the club, Heather Dale and Johanna Leven :
Svalbard 1990, Dale, H. : 88 /347
My Expedition to Svalbard, Leven, J. : 120/100
Both these journals available online, of course. :)
Thanks for this reminder Maggi :-*
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Trond, if you do happen to see a polar bear, please have it pose for you and have its picture recorded. :) I saw a 3 part programme recently on TV, in which a Scottish man was tracking polar bears, a particular family, over 12 months. It was beautiful and thrilling yet somehow I felt uncomfortable as if the bears were being exploited. There seemed to be no real reason for the tracking except to satisfy the man's curiosity though he was apparently working in conjunction with some Danish biologist. It was filmed on Svalbard. The programme did show how the bears are being forced into smaller and smaller areas by the melting of sea ice and how it seems some are already starving because of their inability to hunt except from the ice which is diminishing so fast, so a beautiful programme in some ways but sad too.
Finn Haugli's Oxalis laciniata is a super form but then one would expect that, from that source.
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Wonderful pictures, Trond, thank you for sharing. Reassuring to hear that you have lookouts, I can imagine it is very easy to loose track of ones surroundings when the ground is full of exciting and beautiful plants like those you have posted pictures of.
Parochetus communis is blooming here now, small but beautiful. Our plant is from SRGC seed 2011.
The last picture is of another self-sower that is out now. It is probably also a 'communis'; Gladiolus.
Knud
It is not easy for the guards to keep an eye on us when we disappear in all direction looking for plants!
Knud, do you grow the Parochetus in the garden?
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Really wonderful plants Trond, in a wonderful place. I was hoping to make it to Tromso one day, and now I know I have to make it much further north.
Thanks Tim.
You know you can visit both Tromsø and Svalbard at the same tour as the flight to Svalbard starts in Tromsø!
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Trond, if you do happen to see a polar bear, please have it pose for you and have its picture recorded. :) I saw a 3 part programme recently on TV, in which a Scottish man was tracking polar bears, a particular family, over 12 months. It was beautiful and thrilling yet somehow I felt uncomfortable as if the bears were being exploited. There seemed to be no real reason for the tracking except to satisfy the man's curiosity though he was apparently working in conjunction with some Danish biologist. It was filmed on Svalbard. The programme did show how the bears are being forced into smaller and smaller areas by the melting of sea ice and how it seems some are already starving because of their inability to hunt except from the ice which is diminishing so fast, so a beautiful programme in some ways but sad too.
Finn Haugli's Oxalis laciniata is a super form but then one would expect that, from that source.
Lesley, unfortunately we haven't seen a single bear! Should have visited Ny Ålesund, they have had visits of several bears in July. Yesterday a bin with a cub paid them a visit - all the bears should have been out in the pack ice now. ( http://www.nrk.no/nordnytt/forste-isbjornunge-i-ny-alesund-1.11141006 (http://www.nrk.no/nordnytt/forste-isbjornunge-i-ny-alesund-1.11141006) ) We have seen Svalbard reindeers and arctic foxes and lots of birds of course - and a calving glacier.
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Definitely not glacial: Dahlia australis.
No but a very nice plant nevertheless!
Here are a few more arctic ones:
Cochlearia groenlandica
Draba oxycarpa
Saxifraga oppositifolia x2
Mertensia maritima tenella
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lovely Mertensia, Hoy
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Trond - I shall have to speak to my Bank Manager and persuade her we need to reconnoitre alpines up in Northern Norway! However hard you try it is impossible to grow plants like that beautiful last picture of Mertensia.
Mark - really interesting to see Stachys chrysantha as I have tended to confuse the name with S. citrina. I like all of these small species very much and the latter does well on the sand bed with us.
And Campanula caespitosa, Franz - really very lovely. I don't remember seeing this offered for sale but will watch out for it or seed.
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Thanks Mark and Tim.
We found a huge colony of small Mertensia seedlings on a gravel beach. Only some of them were big enough to flower but if they all survive it should be thousends in a couple years!
Lesley, you are welcome - and should learn some Norwegian. It isn't that difficult!
A few more from thelast days.
Braya glabella purpurascens
Pedicularis dasyantha
Saxifraga hirculus
Saxifraga platysepala
Saxifraga cespitosa cespitosa on the beach
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4 more
Erigeron humilis x2
Salix polaris
Silene uralensis arctica
Polemonium boreale
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Trond, what a perfect setting for Saxifraga caespitosa caespitosa, really something to emulate if you could only get such a fantastic plant to look like that! Wondering if there are easier plants to use to try for the same effect.
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Superb images, Trond ... love the little draba.
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Trond, I especially like the Silene uralensis. There's a similar silene in the Rocky Mtns. called Silene apetala. Also has the inflated calyx with the dark lines, surmouonted by a tiny ruff of actual petals. You have to have good eyesight to even see them. Then thety nod down and are altogether charming. Must be a close relative.
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Trond, I especially like the Silene uralensis. There's a similar silene in the Rocky Mtns. called Silene apetala. Also has the inflated calyx with the dark lines, surmouonted by a tiny ruff of actual petals. You have to have good eyesight to even see them. Then thety nod down and are altogether charming. Must be a close relative.
Agree with Anne , what a great Silene Trond ! Is it only growing in Norway ?
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Trond, I especially like the Silene uralensis. There's a similar silene in the Rocky Mtns. called Silene apetala.
They seem to be considered one and the same these days... love seeing these little guys!! Here, we see Silene uralensis ssp. attenuata, apparently (formerly Lychnis apetala), according to Flora of Alberta. Silene uralensis is said to be circumpolar, and existing across the North American Arctic, down into BC, Alberta, Montana and down into Utah and Colorado. I wonder how ssp. arctica differs from the ones here? (Probably in some detail too subtle for me to detect, I imagine!)
Fabulous photos, Trond!
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Trond, what a perfect setting for Saxifraga caespitosa caespitosa, really something to emulate if you could only get such a fantastic plant to look like that! Wondering if there are easier plants to use to try for the same effect.
Anne, at this place (Kapp Thordsen) this saxifrage covered almost all the land a step above the beach. It is avery variable species and common on many kind of soils - shouldn't be too tricky.
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Superb images, Trond ... love the little draba.
Thanks Cliff. It is 13 different drabas on the islands!
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Trond, I especially like the Silene uralensis. There's a similar silene in the Rocky Mtns. called Silene apetala. Also has the inflated calyx with the dark lines, surmouonted by a tiny ruff of actual petals. You have to have good eyesight to even see them. Then thety nod down and are altogether charming. Must be a close relative.
Anne, it is as Lori says - all these species have been merged into one but different subspecies. The one in Svalbard differ from the one on the mainland of Norway often been more tufted and with longer petals. The populations on Svalbard differed too!
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Maggi, I wonder would it be worth separating out Trond and Anne's wonderful posts of wild plants into dedicated threads in the Travel section?
With their agreement of course.
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Good idea Ashley. I wondered if they might make a new 'flowering in the wild' thread..... let's hear from Anne and Trond ........
I don't know what's best - I was thinking of adding a few pictures of the landscape too.
So do what you think is best, Maggi.
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I have made this Svalbard thread in 'Flowers and Foliage now'.
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Great pictures, Trond.... :)
It's the Taraxacum that does it for me...love to be able to grow that...and the Mertensia too...
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In the original thread, there has been favourable mention of this website:
http://svalbardflora.net/index.php?id=1 (http://svalbardflora.net/index.php?id=1)
I'd like to add this one too:
http://svalbardinsects.net/ (http://svalbardinsects.net/)
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Awesome
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Trond, have you grown the Sax. caespitosa?
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I have made this Svalbard thread in 'Flowers and Foliage now'.
Thanks, Maggi.
Great pictures, Trond.... :)
It's the Taraxacum that does it for me...love to be able to grow that...and the Mertensia too...
Thanks Stephen.
Awesome
Usually too cold for open shoes! ;-)
Trond, have you grown the Sax. caespitosa?
Anne, I have one in my garden (on the shed roof) collected on the mainland. It is alive and flowering but I think it is a bit too dry(or maybe too warm?) in summer.
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Thanks Stephen.
Usually too cold for open shoes! ;-)
Just as well since I'm pretty sure it is well nigh impossible to out run a polar bear - never mind while wearing such shoes :o
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Knud, do you grow the Parochetus in the garden?
Hi Trond, I guess you are back on the mainland again. Sorry for this late response.
Yes, I do grow it in the garden. I must admit I was wondering what to do with the three plants that sprouted. I put two in a pot that I brought inside the first winter, and they promptly died, kept them too dry I suspect.
About the same time Magnar Aspaker posted pictures on this forum of a Parochetus from his garden in Harstad. If it goes in Harstad it should certainly go here in Stavanger, so I planted the third plant in the garden, and in its third year it is stronger than ever. I put it in well drained, gravelly soil in a slightly raised bed, in full sun.
I just planted up two rooted side shoots from the main plant. If they both take, you are welcome to have one if you like.
Knud
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Knud, thanks for the info and I say yes please to the offer! I have thought of trying Parochetus in the garden have but not had the chance yet.
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Parochetus was at one time quite common here in Trøndelag, spread from the botanical gardens in Trondheim I think. I grew it for a few years, but it died. I wonder if it has survived anywhere in the recent series of cold winters... Winters are colder here than Harstad...
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Parochetus communis comes in two forms - one from Africa, now called Parochetus africanus is, as might be imagined, much less hardy than the Asian/Himalayan form.
We have had the Himalayan form survive nearly forty years so far in our Aberdeen garden - this has included the coldest periods we have experienced when temperatures went down to minus 19 degrees C and stayed there for too long!!
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That clearly shows that the provenance is very important!
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Parochetus do not grow on Svalbard.
These do:
Draba alpina
Coptidium lapponicum x2
Coptidium x spitsbergense x2 (= Coptidium lapponicum x pallasii)
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I know it is September but these pictures were taken in August!
I visited Svalbard once more last week in August, not for flowers but for work. (I met my daughter and she told she had to bring a gun when going to the toilet while she was out in the field.)
The summer was over (the midnight sun went down Friday 23 August) and the colours had turned yellow. Not many plants were still in flower.
Here are a Saxifraga cespitosa in seed
Eriophorum scheuchzerii
Flavocetraria nivalis(?)
a red moss
Adventdalen seen from the radar ICECAT
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This time we didn't go as far away as in July, but stayed in the Longyeardalen and Adventdalen (-dal/dalen = (the) valley).
The river Adventelva terminates in Adventfjorden.
Scott Turner breen (bre/breen = (the)glacier) in Bolterdalen, a side valley to Adventdalen.
Breinosa is covered in a block field. This field stems maybe from before the last ice age. About 600m a.s.l.
Several places you can find fossils. This is about 50 million years old. The conifer is Metasequoia occidentalis (a close but extinct relative to M. glyptostroboides). Other conifers you can find include Taxodium spp and Larix spp. Experiments show that all these conifers tolerate midnight sun in summer and no sun in winter (they shed their leaves). These early Tertiary woods on Svalbard also contained a huge amount of broad leaved trees although at that time Svalbard was at 70oN.
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Although it still was reasonably mild (we had up to 13oC) the leaves of Salix polaris had gotten fall colour.
At the foot of Longyearbreen. As recent as 1936 this moraine was covered by the glacier which now has receded several hundred meters.
Operafjellet (right) and Hjortfjellet (left).
8000 years ago Adventdalen was an arm of the fjord and clams thrived in the shallow water. When a glacier had a surge many clams were covered by sand and ice and suffocated. The first picture shows a freeze-dried siphon of Mya truncata. The next picture shows the shell in the sand (this was undisturbed until a creek disturbed the deposits).
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Moraine at the foot of the glacier.
In the second picture the blue clad person to the right stands where the side of the glacier was in about 1990. The white clad person stands where the glacier was in 2004.
The glacier - melting down.
Meltwater pools and creeks.
View of Longyearbyen.
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Fascinating set of pictures Trond, many thanks.