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A wide variety of plant life has resided in Antarctica throughout its history. Investigations of Upper Cretaceous and Early Tertiary sediments of Antarctica yield a rich assemblage of well-preserved fossil dicotyledonous angiosperm wood which provides evidence for the existence, since the Late Cretaceous, of temperate forests similar in composition to those found in present-day southern South ...
For the purposes of this category, "Antarctica" is defined as the only area within the WGSRPD region of the "Antarctic Continent" in the Antarctic botanical continent, according to the WGSRPD.
David Senchina notes that Hooker was the first botanist to set foot on Antarctica, in 1840; the first sighting of a plant on the continent was only a few years earlier, namely A. Young's observation of Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass) in 1819, from HMS Andromache, and the first plant specimen from an Antarctic island had been ...
Fitzroya cupressoides, Chiloé Island Phormium tenax, Piha, New Zealand. The Antarctic floristic kingdom, also the Holantarctic kingdom, is a floristic kingdom [1] that includes most areas of the world south of 40°S latitude.
The oceans themselves are a more stable environment for life, both in the water column and on the seabed. There is relatively little diversity in Antarctica compared to much of the rest of the world. Terrestrial life is concentrated in areas near the coast. Flying birds nest on the milder shores of the Peninsula and the subantarctic islands.
The continent of Antarctica is so cold that it has supported only 2 vascular plants for millions of years, and its flora presently consists of around 250 lichens, 100 mosses, 25–30 liverworts, and around 700 terrestrial and aquatic algal species, which live on the areas of exposed rock and soil around the shore of the continent.
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Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis) are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, including offshore islands, where the climate is relatively mild. Lagotellerie Island in Marguerite Bay is an example of this habitat.