Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1975, Page 10

any Icelander will be in doubt as to what is meant by the word
mire. The term comprises all land immdated by water, which either
floods the grass roots or reaches their level during the better part
of the year. The term mire also embraces the vegetation found on
such land. The distinction between mire and dry ground is there-
fore a clear one (confer, however, with later descriptions of mo-
raine). On the other hand the distinction between mire-vegetation
and aquatic growth is often vague. Mire-vegetation frequently ex-
tends from the banks of ponds and lakes and no clear distinction
can be drawn between mire and aquatic vegetation. I have usually
abided by the rule of considering aquatic growth as commencing
where the moss bottom layer almost or altogether disappears. It
should be noted that in accordance with Icelandic usage wet strand
meadows (sjávarfitjar) are often called mires, since these are often
not easily distinguishable from adjoining flæðimýri (alluvial
mires). However, these will not be dealt with here, since they in-
volve plant sociations affected by saltwater and they are therefore
characterized by species which either tolerate the salinity or even
thrive only where salt is present. These plant sociations belong to
shore vegetations and not to mire vegetation proper.
Authors in other countries of the world are not entirely in agree-
ment as to what mire refers to, but in general they probably apply
the term in a narrower sense than it is used here. Thus mire is
commonly appended to the presence of peat under the soil, the
thickness of the peat layer measuring at least 30-40 cm. This would
not at all apply to Icelandic mires. In this country there is fre-
quently little or almost no peat in mires, without any noticeable
difference in their vegetation as compared with others, where a
peat layer occurs. Fægri appears to concur where he says: “Myren
i sitt innerste er hverken en vegetationstype eller en lagserie, den
er ett landomráde” (The nature of a mire is neither that of a kind
of vegetation nor layer series, it is an area of land.) (Fægri, 1934,
p. 5). This may well apply to the Icelandic mire, which has a
rather special position among West-European mires, as will be
shown.
In my earlier papers I have defined mires as follows: “To fhis
series (the mire series) I refer all the plant communities, which
grow in such moist soil, that the water reaches the surface of the
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