Good question!
Most of Antarctica is covered by ice and snow, which remains there permanently, leaving <1 % left for plants to grow. Snow and ice doesn't tend to appear along the Antarctic Peninsula, its islands and around the Antarctic coast. One thing that really amazes me is how plants can still be found in the inland mountains in Antarctica, which don't seem very plant-friendly at all!
Antarctica has two species of flowering plants – Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlwort. These are found in the South Orkney Islands, the Western Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. You can also find specially adapted mosses (100 species), liverworts (25 species), lichens (300-400 species) and fungi (20 species) which can tolerate colder climates and dehydrated environments. The western Antarctic Peninsula has the greatest species diversity where the climate is warm and wet. In the drier valleys in an area called Victoria Land, algae, fungi and lichens can be found in cracks and pore spaces in two types of rock – sandstones and granites.
However, Antarctica didn't always used to be covered in ice. About 120 million years ago during the Cretaceous there were forests! We know this because of the presence of fossil material, namely Gingko tree leaves, monkey puzzle tree leaves, cycad leaves, fossil pollen, fossil fern material and borings (holes) in fossil wood.
Good question!
Most of Antarctica is covered by ice and snow, which remains there permanently, leaving <1 % left for plants to grow. Snow and ice doesn't tend to appear along the Antarctic Peninsula, its islands and around the Antarctic coast. One thing that really amazes me is how plants can still be found in the inland mountains in Antarctica, which don't seem very plant-friendly at all!
Antarctica has two species of flowering plants – Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlwort. These are found in the South Orkney Islands, the Western Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. You can also find specially adapted mosses (100 species), liverworts (25 species), lichens (300-400 species) and fungi (20 species) which can tolerate colder climates and dehydrated environments. The western Antarctic Peninsula has the greatest species diversity where the climate is warm and wet. In the drier valleys in an area called Victoria Land, algae, fungi and lichens can be found in cracks and pore spaces in two types of rock – sandstones and granites.
However, Antarctica didn't always used to be covered in ice. About 120 million years ago during the Cretaceous there were forests! We know this because of the presence of fossil material, namely Gingko tree leaves, monkey puzzle tree leaves, cycad leaves, fossil pollen, fossil fern material and borings (holes) in fossil wood.
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