Plants of the Tundra Community
Most of the tundra is a treeless plain. Even during the short period of warmer summer days, a fierce and terrible wind blows over the land. So only tough, sturdy plants that grow close to the ground can live in this community. Birches and willow trees no bigger than bushes grow here and there. But mosses and small flowering plants are the main plants.
The vegetation of the tundra is almost entirely composed of perennial plants, camephytic plants (cushion-like plants) and hemicryptophytic plants (perennial herbaceous plants). Cushion-like plants include Ericaceae and saxifrages, while hemicryptophytic plants include sedges. There are no forest trees at all. Shrubs, birches and willows are few and small, to resist frost and strong winds. Mosses, rushes, graminaceous plants and peat mosses (a type of moss which has adapted very well to live in swampy areas) grow in wet areas, where the land is soaked in water.
In summer, many short-stemmed flowers deck the tundra in bright colours. Because of the cold, plants have a very slow growth cycle: the reindeer moss (Cladonia rangiferina), for instance, takes one year to grow just 1-5 mm taller.
Picture Credit : Google
