Flowers of Antarctica-All two of them

Only two flowering plants have been able to survive in the iciest continent, but global warming may bring them company.

We have argued that the study "flower customs on seven continents" and today stands, shivering, as our words. Welcome to the small flowering plant Kingdom of Antarctica.

99% of the continent is bound throughout the year. Just a few islands, coastal Sliver and patches of the Antarctic Peninsula can support any plant life at all, and because of extreme cold and dry winds, most growing things are simple mosses and lichens. No trees, no shrubs. Indeed, only two flowering plants throughout the continent: the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia Antarctica) and pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis). And neither one of them is exactly Corsage material.

Researchers in hats and long underwear, which has been examining the continent's ecology see these two plant populations gradually increasing, though. At the same time, Loose Tooth, an ice shelf in the East, is cracking away from the mainland. Que pasa?

A group of researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been looking at these changes, and we have been in contact with one of them, a scientist Jim Behrens. He spent a few months with a team camp on the Amery Ice Shelf studying seismic changes and temperature streams. Check out the pictures of his residence, complete with penguins, waterless morning in the kitchen, and walks across the fields of glacial boulders. (Although most of us wring our hands about global warming, some people are out there struggling with it.)

Jim was funny to think of his work in connection with flowers ... ", As one of the most distinctive aspects of Antarctica is the complete lack of plants. The plant like most things around (native to the area), some dried seaweed along the coast and the occasional lichen. There is a small greenhouse at the station where we grow things like lettuce and cucumbers, cucumber flowers are the only flowers I saw during my stay. "

Without realizing it, for all of us, even the palest-off, is drenched with plantness. Except maybe a limited to an intensive care Ward for many weeks, we never live apart from the green world. But Jim has. He describes the title back from Antarctica:

"After several months of rocks and ice, I could smell Tasmania before I could see it as a week-long boat ride back north came to an end. When it first struck me was the strongest, lustiest flavor I have ever seen, but during a few minutes my olfactory sense had re-calibrated and the smell of vegetation crept into the background again. "(www.humanflowerproject.com