The vascular flora of raised bogs in southeastern Labrador and its phytogeographic significance

Abstract

The vascular flora of raised bogs in southeastern Labrador is composed of only 26 species, which may be grouped into three different elements: wide-ranging arctic–boreal species, boreal species reaching their northeastern range limits in the forest–tundra transition, and boreal species reaching their range limits along the shores of Lake Melville. The striking impoverishment of the Labrador bog flora relative to those in Newfoundland and other parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence region is apparently the result of the colder more continental climate of Labrador, which excludes from the regional bog flora the less hardy species of southern affinities.