Greinar (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.01.1935, Page 127

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PLANT
GEOGRAPHY AND FLORISTIC
CONDITÍONS OF ICELAND.
ii.
THE FLORA AT FJALLABAKSVEGUR, SOUTH-ICELAND.
In the summer of 1932 I travelled about northern Fjalla-
baksvegur and investigated the vegetation there around
Landmanna and Skaptártunga-afréítir. Most of mv investi-
gations were concerned with the plant-life and I shall
later give details of the results obtained in connection
with the vegetation elsewhere in the desert regions of
Iceland, which I am now engaged in investigating. My
intention here is merely to give a general survey of the
flora in this area. Little has been written on the vegetation
of the deserts before this and no separate flora of the
desert areas has been published. I have referred before
now to various rare plants of this area in the »Skýrsla
Náttúrufræðifélagsins 1931—32«.
The vegetation around Fjallabaksvegur occurs, as one
might say, in patches, which lie there like green oases
among the lava and sand. These oases are mostly in the
vicinity of rivers and lakes, where the drifting sand does not
succeed in exterminating all plant-life. In some places where
there is shelter the mountains are covered with growth right
up to the edge. It is peculiar that in many places the
floors of the valleys are covered with sand, but beautiful
carpets of vegetation cover the slopes where the wind
has not succeeded in driving the sand except to a very
small extent. There is also a great difference between the