Greinar (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.01.1967, Page 5

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The purpose of this paper is to describe the immigra-
tion and naturalization of foreign species of flowering
plants into Iceland, since about 1900. For the immigration
of species in earlier periods the reader is referred especi-
ally to Steindórsson (1962).
General remarks.
The species considered here include those foreign spe-
cies that have been found growing “in a wild state” (i.e.
not cultivated), whether they have become permanently
established or not. These species may origionally either
have been accidentally introduced with various kinds of
cargo, or they may have been introduced intentionally for
various purposes, but later excaping from cultivation.
Two very important routes of entry for foreign species
are with imported grass seeds and chicken fodder.
Grass seeds have been imported principally from Norway,
Denmark and Finland and to a lesser extent from Canada
during World War II. Seed of Bromus inermis was im-
ported from U.S.A. Chicken fodder was formerly im-
ported mainly from Denmark but in later years also from
U.S.A. On new grassfields and around chicken farms one
may each year find several foreign species growing such
as Brassica campestris, Sinapis arvensis, cereals, Cheno-
podium album, Stellaria graminea, Lamium spp., Fago-
pyrum sagittatum, Matricaria spp., Chrysanthemum leu-
canthemum.
In the last few decades several foreign grasses such as
Alopecurus pratensis, Phleum pratense, Lolium perenne,
Bromus inermis and Dactylis glomerata have become per-
manently established in Iceland. In old grass fields the
most common grasses are Poa pratensis, Festuca rubra,
Agrostis stolonifera and Deschampsia caespitosa. They
are also common far away from farms and are probably
native to the country. But foreign strains of these species
have been introduced, probably to some extent at the time