Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Black spruce is the most abundant tree of Labrador and probably constitutes over ninety per cent of the
forest. It grows freely on the sandy soils . . . and thrives as well on the dry hills as in the wet swampy
country between the ridges. On the southern watershed the growth is very thick everywhere, so much so
that the trees rarely reach a large size. To the northward, about the edges of the semi-barrens, the growth
on the uplands is less rank, the trees being in open glades, where they spread out their branches resem-
bling white spruce. The northern limit of the black spruce is that of the forest belt; it and larch being the
last trees met before entering the barrens.
Bearberry and Labrador tea brighten the groundcover of reindeer moss.
Low also describes the understory of this northern forest, which no doubt provided him with much grief as
he beat his way across the land:
Throughout the forest belt, the lowlands fringing the streams and lakes are covered with thickets of wil-
lows and alders . . . Beyond the limits of the true forest, similar thickets of Arctic willows and birches are
found on the low grounds, but on the more elevated lands they only grow a few inches above the surface.
In the southern region, the undergrowth in the wooded areas is chiefly Labrador tea (Ledum latifolium)
and “laurel” (Kalmia glauca), which grow in tangled mats, from two to four feet high, and are very diffi-
cult to travel through . . . In the southern regions the ground is usually covered to a considerable depth
with sphagnum, which northward of 51 degrees is gradually replaced by the white lichens or reindeer
mosses (Cladonia).
By the time you reach the Torngat Mountains of northern Labrador, tundra consisting of lichens, mosses,
and sedges cover half of the upland surfaces, whereas Arctic black spruce and a mixture of evergreen and de-
ciduous shrubs survive on the more sheltered, wetter sites.
CONIFERS HAVE DEVELOPED
a number of strategies to combat the cold and darkness of a northern winter. Year
to year, they retain their evergreen needles, which carry out photosynthesis, and whenever the weather is warm
enough, they can manufacture glucose. This strategy has been described by conservation ecologist J. David
Henry in Canada's Boreal Forest as a “waste not, want not strategy,” as opposed to the “easy come, easy go”
strategy of the leaf-shedding hardwoods. Conifers also seem to have adapted to thrive on the thin, immature
