July 2013 in Svalbard

[Hoy]

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

[ashley]

  First plants from Svalbard shown on the forum I think.

Thanks Trond.  Will you have the chance to travel outside Longyearbyen?

[Maggi Young]

  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. 

[Hoy]

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

[Tim Ingram]

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.

[ashley]

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

[Lesley Cox]

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.

[Hoy]

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?

[Hoy]

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!

[Hoy]

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 ) We have seen Svalbard reindeers and arctic foxes and lots of birds of course - and a calving glacier.

[Hoy]

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

[Mark Griffiths]

 lovely Mertensia, Hoy

[Tim Ingram]

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.

[Hoy]

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

[Hoy]

4 more

Erigeron humilis x2
Salix polaris
Silene uralensis arctica
Polemonium boreale