Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1975, Síða 72

“The ombrosoligene mýri is characterized by being simultane-
ously able to climb over hills and its distal or extreme border
is shaped so as to receive water from the environment and
lead it into the mýri, while at the same time the lower parts
in characteristic cases will resemble highmoss and are shaped
so as to allow omnilateral run-off.”
(Fægri, 1934, p. 9).
The Icelandic mýri, to be sure, never resembles highmoss —■ mýri
but the lowest part of the Icelandic mýri is often transformed into
a flói, when the slope ceases and the water stagnates. On the other
hand Fægri’s statement that the mýri “phases gradually into the
Atlantic moor” is fully applicable, if the word Atlantic is omitted.
Peat formation is usually greater in the mýri than in the flói, and
it often reaches considerable proportions.
The acidity of the mýri areas is not to be described beyond what
is stated about mire vegetation in general. However, it may be
asserted that it is on the whole less acid than the flói. But this sub-
ject will be dealth with in more detail in describing individual as-
sociations.
Carices constitute the main vegetation of the mýri areas, espe-
cially C. nigra, which most often is the prime character species of
the mýri. In the highland, to be sure it is often replaced by C. Bige-
lowii. Another character species is Equisetum palustre and thirdly
Scirpus cæspitosus occurs in certain areas as will later be men-
tioned. What thus draws a definitive border between flói and mýri
is as follows: In the flói Eriophorum angustifolium is most often
overwhelmingly a dominant species or in some areas Carex rostrata,
C. nigra and Scirpus cæspitosus rarely, and Equisetum palustre
never. On the other hand E. angustifolium never becomes domi-
nant in the mýri, although it may reach a significant frequency
particularly in some transitional sociations. Mosses are always
much more numerous in mýri than in flói and more conspicuous
both in physiognomy and covering, although many of these species
are the same. Under certain circumstances small shrubs are domi-
nant in the mýri vegetation, and at times grasses gain the upper
hand. These associations may, to be sure, in many cases he described
as transitional forms towards heath and grassfield meadows. On
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