Store-SkagastølstindScandinavian Mountains over 2000 metres - James Baxter
Flora & Fauna
The flora and fauna of the Scandinavian Mountains is relatively rich. However, it has to put up with a very variable climate. In the summer times are easy. The temperatures are generally kind with temperatures usually in the teens and frost is rare even on the highest peaks. The days are long and light plentiful, so plants grow vigorously and can support large hosts of insects. This in turn allows many other animals and birds plentiful sustenance to reproduce.
In the winter however it is a very harsh climate. The temperatures are below freezing for months, nothing grows in the very short dark days and almost every thing is buried under a deep layer of snow. Sustenance is very hard to come by and every thing needs a strategy to cope.
All of the plants tend to loose there leaves and generally shut down for the winter when they will be buried under snow for 4-6 months. Most of the animals have to cope also. Those which cannot migrate to the more sheltered forests like reindeer will either hibernate or eak out an existence under the snow. Birds find it far easier to migrate and many species abandon Scandinavian en mass for warmer climes elsewhere on the globe.
Most of the plants are perennials. The list of species here is quite generalized and the list is by no means complete. Many plants are unique to different areas and the plant community found in Arctic Sweden differs slightly to the communities found in south central Norway. There is a glossary to clarify some of the more technical terms I have used in the plant descriptions.
