Some Flowering Plants of the Devon Island Lowlands

Abstract

When the massive ice sheet of the last Pleistocene glacier melted 10,000 years ago, land which had been forced below sea level under its weight began to rise, and the receding water left behind rows of beach ridges and shallow depressions. On the northern shore of Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, there is an area of such lowland about 40 square kilometres in extent. It is bounded in the north and west by Jones Sound and in the south by the Truelove Inlet and River, while to its east lies an escarpment 1000 ft (300 m) high separating it from the upland plateau of the interior of the Island and the remains of its ice cap. From the base of the escarpment to the sea, this lowland area is a treeless terrain of lakes and ponds separated by grassy meadows and rocky beach ridges, dissected by meandering melt streams. During the summer, many of the meadows are wet and muddy, retaining a good deal of standing water during the short growing season. The raised beach ridges are dry and pebbly along their tops, becoming progressively moister as they slope down towards the meadows and ponds. The flowers described and illustrated in this article are all to be found growing in this lowland area. …