Only those plants that can withstand the severity of its natural and climatic conditions dominate in the tundra. Tundra landscapes are swampy, peaty and rocky. Shrubs do not invade here. Their distribution area does not extend beyond the boundaries of taiga sites. The northern expanses are covered by dwarf tundra plants creeping on the ground: polar willow, blueberry, lingonberry and other elfin trees.
The fauna here is formed mainly by mosses, lichens, sedges and mushrooms. Low grass is interrupted by moss-lichen pillows every now and then. Trees and shrubs are represented by small forms. Only polar willow and dwarf birch are found. Tiny trees sometimes break through the closed turf, then they grow completely.
Willow polar - dwarf shrub
A unique representative of flowering plants is the polar willow. Although it is excessively small, it still belongs to the tundra shrubs, not grasses. Due to natural conditions, a tiny plant is compelled not to become like a shrub tree, but a dwarf creeping on the ground.
On thin tree-like stems, a minimum number of long-lasting leaflets that do not crumble, like other willows in the autumn, is strengthened. They remain green under the snow cover. The plant has two more names - dwarf willow and arctic. Polar willow in the tundra is not alone. Along with it there are representatives of the Magadan, Yenisei, grassy and several other dwarf breeds.
Nutritional Information of Polar Willow
Willow leaves are a great food for reindeer. To get enough of them in winter, they dig them out from under the snow. In winter, its shoots, buds and bark are not neglected by hares, partridges and rodents.
The leaves of the arctic shrub are edible. Northern peoples store the plant for the future and prepare quite exotic food from it. They, twisting the deer’s stomachs, fill them with boiled leaves and the liquid in which the plant was boiling. Chukchi eat a mixture of willow leaves and deer blood. Eskimos season them with seals and blood. In addition, surrogate tea is prepared from the leaves.
Biological description
Dwarf shrub of grassy appearance has miniature tree-like climbing trees. You look at the pictures, the polar willow on which is depicted, and you wonder how amazing nature is. Tiny trunks are formed by tiny underground branches. They are unlike ordinary trees short. Their length does not exceed 3-5 centimeters.
On the creeping ground, rooted yellow twigs there are a few tiny leaves that are exposed over the turf. Although lanceolate stipules are inherent in the plant, it is a rare phenomenon. They often prefer to be absent. The leaves have round outlines, broadly ovate. Sometimes they are kidney-shaped and only occasionally elliptically wide-lanceolate. The tops are roundish.
The shape of the leaf is often notched. Their base is outlined by either rounded or heart-shaped, and very rarely wedge-shaped lines. Here's what a polar willow looks like - an unusual tundra tree. On green leaves with solid sides, the top is dull, and the bottom is slightly shiny. The length of the bare petioles is only 1 centimeter. The length of leaflets strung on tiny petioles does not exceed 2.5 cm, and the width is not more than 1.3 cm.
In the final flower earrings, the forms are, as a rule, oblong or ovoid. The number of miniature flowers in them varies from 3 pieces to 17. Polar willow is still equipped with bracts. Their description is as follows: in dark-brown flakes with ovoid (sometimes also ovate) rounded, concave forms, serrated edges occur.
There are two naked stamens. They have a dark anther and an oblong-ovoid, narrowed nectary. The ovaries are conical, light-felt shades at first, over time they go bald, repainting in greenish or purple tones. Bifid diverging stigmas have an oblong-linear nectary.
Of course, such trifles are not always possible to consider in nature, and even more so in the photo. Polar willow, like many other plants, is thoroughly studied by biologists in laboratories.
Arctic Willow Range
The dominance of the hardy plant begins in the polar deserts covering the Arctic islands, and extends to the northern surroundings of the Putorana Plateau. The area of dwarf shrubs captured the Scandinavian, East Siberian, Chukchi and Kamchatka lands in the tundra. It stretches across the expanses of the islands of Jan Mayen and Svalbard.
In an endless struggle with the negative conditions of the harsh Arctic, the tree found reliable ways to survive in the inhospitable northern places. In the ice age, when the ruthless onslaught of the approaching glaciation became unbearable, the polar willow forcedly retreated to the south.
The glacier creeping backward allowed her to re-capture her favorite northern territories. She firmly entrenched in its former borders, settling in the area of Novaya Zemlya and the Commander Islands. The ongoing Arctic thaw contributes to the stubborn progress of the shrub to the borders of the Far North. It penetrates with great speed (for dwarf plants) into the tundra and the Arctic zone. Its range annually increases by a whole kilometer!
The soil
The tree has an extensive environmental amplitude. He was chosen by the soil of various compositions. It only avoids limestones, however, and is sometimes found on them. It feels great on grassy, gravel, clay soils, characteristic of the Arctic and alpine tundra. Shrub is unpretentious to soil moisture. There is no polar willow in the tundra in excessively dry or excessively moist areas.
It is indifferent to soil wealth. True, he does not want to grow on high peat polytrich mounds, dotted with swampy areas. They have a depleted acidic substrate, which the dwarf shrub does not like at all. But on zonal tundra glue soils, it grows everywhere. The plant neglects snowy places. He is attracted to nival areas with good snow cover.
Ecosystems involving polar willow
Everywhere, almost everywhere, with the exception of the northern zones, the shrub has adapted itself to moss-lichen surfaces. Such thalli are a stunning sight. Their caps of saturated green, yellow, orange, red and other colors form fabulously beautiful landscapes. Willow trunks are always immersed in mossy turfs, and leaves, on the contrary, rise above the surfaces of picturesque tubercles.
The tree is tied to pebbles and block ruins, which is clearly demonstrated by the photo. The polar willow in the tundra hides in small clefts formed by stones. Between the pebbles, she finds mechanical protection and more humus soils.
However, from the numerous moss-lichen phytocenoses, the shrub prefers loose turf. It is to those surfaces that are formed by hypnous amniotic mosses, the liver, and similar vegetation.
Ecological niches of polar willow
Mountain dwellers of Putorana have become the habitat of dwarf shrubs. He found shelter among miniature crevices and cracks that cut the Kotuy and Anabar plateaus. Its thickets were covered by snow-covered niches, strewn with a loach belt. They did not fail to crawl into the forests with moist mossy thalli, which founded a colorful northern ecosystem.
And in the mountain snow valleys, what does a polar willow look like? Here it forms massive thickets. The lodges of snowfields are completely covered by it, and the ice is in a dense environment of small leaves protruding outward. And at the same time, the plant is inactive in the expanses of the plain forest tundra and southern tundra.
It is scattered along nival ravines, at the foot of the northern slopes. Dwarf willow thickets sprawled along lacustrine overgrown shrubs. They covered the sides of deeply creeping streams.
Their activity is increasing in typical tundra. An abundance of willow shoots is noted in the biocenoses of moraine landscapes. Where on the plains there are clusters of rocky debris left over from the movement of glaciers. In the alluvial and alluvial zones, the role of shrubs is reduced.
It becomes interesting what the polar willow looks like, the photo of which you are looking at in the spotted tundra, along the sides of the valley streams, and where the watersheds and delle complexes formed. In places with willow-moss-grass thalli.
The dominance of willow bushes in the tundra
In the presence of polar willows, vegetation of the arctic tundra develops. Moreover, the dwarf shrub actively dominates in the majority of upland phytocenoses. In particular, it prevails in the willow-moss-grass communities. In addition, its predominance was noted in the Byrranga massifs.
Abundant thickets of dwarf willow have mastered moss tundra. They clogged the crevices of the gravelly tundra. Their shelter became dell complexes, plumes enriched with humus, bulk and little snow places. Entirely covers willow ridges of valley polygonal swamps.
