New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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ALPINE TUNDRA ON MT CATEDRAL IN THE SOUTHERN ANDES

Richard T. Ward

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Colorado State University, U.S.A.

and

M. J. Dimitri

Direccion General de Parques Nacionales, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract An investigation was carried out in early 1964 to describe the alpine vegetation on a mountain of south-west Argentina at 41° 12'S, 71° 29' W. Mt Catedral (summit elevation 2,388 m, timber line at c. 1,700 m), with broad expanses of alpine country on east- and west-facing slopes, is generally representative of the eastern range of the southern Andes at this latitude. Massive slides and general instability characterise the alpine zone, and surface materials are very rocky and sandy, and low in fine soil particles. Precipitation in the alpine zone is substantial (c. 1,500 mm annually), but much of it comes in the colder months. Growth form of the alpine plants of Mt Catedral is similar to that of alpine and arctic tundra of the northern hemisphere, but floristic affinities at the species level are minor. Dense vegetation mats occur only where seepage from springs provides abundant surface moisture in summer. A heavy turf of grass-sedge-rush-dwarf shrub dominance develops, or in some places a tight mat of Empetrum rubrum. The great part of the alpine area of Mt Catedral is only sparsely occupied by plants, with Pernettya puinila most common. Stunted and open-grown Nothofagus pumilio form the upper forest growth.

N.Z. Jl Bot. 4 : 42-56 (Received for publication 5 August 1965)

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