9. Second stage of layering of White Spruce. 10. Circular group of White Spruce Trees produced by layering. Parent tree has disappeared. II. Tundra 116 miles South of Fairbanks looking toward Donnelly Dome. 12. Tundra Lichen Society. The Reindeer Lichen is here prominent. Alaska they comprise Juncoides campestre (Linn.) Kuntze, Calamagrostis canadensis (Michx.) Beauv., Polygonum bistorta Linn., Anemone narcissiflora, Arctous alpina var. rubra (Fern) R. & W., Linnaea borealis Linn. var. americana (Forbes) Rehd., Cornus canadensis Linn., Pedicularis euphrasioides Stephan, P. Oederi Vahl,1 Campanula lasiocarpa Cham. The grass (Calamagrostis canadensis) becomes the most abundant grass on the tundra after a fire has swept across the country. In the region investigated, it was common, but not general, as there was no evidence that the country had been burned over. Another evidence of this immunity from fire was the scarcity of the fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium Lam.), which in many parts of Alaska is the dominant and conspicuous plant where fires have burned. For miles and miles after fires have raged, the country is purple, when the fireweed is in flower. Around the mining towns and the Summit Road House, knotweed (Polygonum alaskanum (Small) Wright), pineapple weed (Matricaria suaveolens Pursh), shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris Medic), chickweed (Stellaria media Vill), squirrel grass (Hordeum jubatum Linn.), white clover (Trifolium repens Linn.) were the most abundant weeds. FELL-FIELD ASSOCIATIONS There were two places where the rocks were so plentiful and their tops exposed and where bare ground was visible that these areas might be called fell-field (fjeld), the rock tundra of Gates and other ecologists. On the summit of the Second Dome, back of the Summit Road House at 2,400 feet elevation and on the summit of Pedro Dome (Fig. 15), a flat, rocky tableland (2,662 feet), fell-field vegetation may be said to grow. There were cushions of the Arctic birch in fully exposed situations and the prostrate mats of Arctous alpina var. rubra (Fern.) R. & W. in autumn color growing close to the ground (Fig. 14). Here also grew in exposed rocky places Diapensia lapponica associated with other plants in 1 The Scrophulariaceae were determined by Francis W. Pennell. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 13. Betula kenaica Evans, four feet tall. 14. Association of Alpina Bearberry Arctous (Mairania) alpina Niedenzu var. rubra (Fern) patches suggesting that we have here (Fig. 14) on a small scale patchy tundra (Fleckentundra) mentioned by Gates (see note below). The flora of Pedro Dome comprised Equisetum sylvaticum Linn., Tofieldia coccinea Richards, Spiraea densiflora Nutt., Lupinus arcticus Wats., Saxifraga tricuspidata Rottb., Vaccinium uliginosum Linn., Vaccinium uliginosum Linn. var. pedris Harshberger,1 Pedicularis euphrasioides Stephan, Campanula lasiocarpa Cham., Senecio frigidus (Linn.) Fries and Solidago multiradiata Art. The writer in finding Vaccinium uliginosum var. pedris feels that he has discovered a new variety of whortleberry. The fruit of this form is elongated and ellipsoidal, instead of spherical, and the berries are sweet instead of tart, as in Vaccinium uliginosum. In other characters, the presence of bloom on the fruit and in the vegetative characters, the new variety agrees with the species. This new variety, found on the fell-field on the summit of Pedro Dome at 2,662 feet on July 31, 1926, has been named variety pedris from the mountain on which it grew. CLITTER PLANTS 2 The single fern collected on the tundra was Dryopteris fragrans (Linn.) Schott. It grew in great clumps among the loose rocks of the clitter on the north slope of Pedro Dome at 2,500 feet (Fig. 16) and in a similar habitat on the north side of the dome opposite the Summit Road House at 2,400 feet. Its rhizomes and roots grew down into the crevices of the loosely-piled rocks. On the flat tops of separate, large, angular boulders on the north slope of Pedro Dome grew mats of Empetrum nigrum, Cladonia rangiferina and Vaccinium Vitis 1 Vaccinium uliginosum Linn. var. pedris nova varietas. Bacca ovata; fructus dulcissimus. Culmen Montis Pedris, Alaska. Since drafting this paper, the one by R. Ruggles Gates "Notes on the Tundra of Russian Lapland" has appeared (The Journal of Ecology, XVI: 150-160, Feb. 1928). On p. 152, Gates in a footnote speaks of Vaccinium uliginosum, as follows: "I observed a variety of V. uliginosum with quadrate fruits, another variety with pear-shaped, and a third with elongated cylindrical fruits." In the body of the article, he refers to each species of Vaccinium having its own flavor and range of shape. 2 See ante. Idaea, in abundant red fruit. Some of the rocks were covered with black, crustaceous lichens. CONCLUSION Stefansson has emphasized the importance of the utilization of the "barren grounds," or tundra, in the raising of caribou for market, and the writer recently had a dinner of reindeer steak in Philadelphia. The caribou feeds on the reindeer lichen (Cladonia rangiferina) and other tundra plants, and in winter, if these plants are covered with snow, it paws away the snow to get the lichens (Fig. 12) and other tundra plants underneath. It probably uses also the spade-like, downward projecting, front prongs of its antlers to shovel the snow. The mistake of overcropping these arctic ranges should be avoided, for we do not want to repeat the economic errors, which have been made with the use of the prairie-plains of the United States proper. We should have learned by bitter experience that such deterioration of the natural pastures might have been prevented by a detailed scientific study of the plants of the open range and their best utilization in furnishing food for herds of cattle. The repetition of such economic waste can be prevented in the far north by a thorough investigation of the vegetation of the tundra and the feeding habits of the caribou, coupled with enlightened legislation based on the recommendations of the scientific experts, who have studied the interrelation of the caribou and the plants on which they feed. Detailed research work on the distribution, abundance, growth and reproduction of tundra plants should be made as well as the species of plants which are browsed by the caribou. The feeding habits of the caribou throughout the year should be studied exhaustively. This will furnish data for the control of the ranges and the number of reindeer that can be allowed to roam the tundra without seriously overcropping. The method of approach has been suggested by Joseph Dixon in an illustrated article in American Forests and Forest 1 Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, "Polar Pastures," The Forum, Vol. 75: 9-20, New York, 1926. |