ARCTIC PLANT LIFE

It is hard for plants to grow in the Arctic. Once the snow melts the growing season is short. Even in the summer it is cold and windy and there are just a few months of sunshine. Yet, many different types of plants have adapted to the Arctic tundra.

wild flowers on the tundra, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Colourful wildflowers bloom from the end of June to the end of July. There are many flowering plants like purple saxifrage, mountain avens, wild crocus, arctic poppies, buttercups, cinquefoil, moss campion, campanulas, arctic azaleas and arctic lupine

Other plants that grow there are mosses, grasses, herbs, lichens and small shrubs like the dwarf willow and arctic willow.

NEXT - how plants adapt


** INTRODUCTION ** PEOPLE ** ANIMALS ** PLANTS ** CLIMATE CHANGE ** ARCTIC INDEX **



background: Arctic poppy

J.Giannetta
August,2000
updated 2017



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