Greenland

[Todd Boland]

Here's a part of the world you don't see very often!  I was fortunate to be an on-board naturalist on a cruise ship to Greenland 5 years ago.  Here are some images fro the Stromfjord..the longest fjord in the world, I think!  The images were taken at 11:00 pm!

[Todd Boland]

The town of Sisimiut

[Todd Boland]

The arctic tundra near Sisimiut

[Todd Boland]

Pictures from Nuuk, the capital of Greenland

[Todd Boland]

Flower gardens in Nuuk!

[Todd Boland]

and a few native arctic-alpines!

[Todd Boland]

and some more

[RickR]

Their form of Campanula rotundifolia is far more stout and sturdy, with wider opening and more upright flowers than our upper Midwest form in Minnesota.  Leaves are more numerous, wider and with more substance, too.
Are yours like that in New Foundland too, Todd?  Trond, do they look like that in Norway also?

In Minnesota:

[RickR]

I need to add how breathtaking the scenery is.

[Booker]

I will dream about Sisimiut now, Todd ... what a gorgeous place.  Wonderful tour of a must-see destination.

[Hoy]

Greenland (Groenland in Norwegian; Stromfjord actually means "the fjord with (strong) current" (it is Norwegian)) is one of the many places I have on my wish-list!
The harebell/Campanula rotundifolia (blaaklokke = bluebell in Norw.) is very variable her in Norway. We have forms, especially in the mountains and up north, with few but big flowers very similar to this one, and we have plants with smaller and more numerous flowers but longer stalks. The color is variable too from dark to light blue, and occasionally white. Some are tufted  and others spread by underground runners. Sorry no good images.

[Todd Boland]

Ours are quite variable in Newfoundland but I must admit, I haven't seen any local forms as stout as this one in Greenland...mind you, they are not all stout in Greenland...some more more wiry-stemmed.

Danish must be similar to Norwegian as I have a Greenland wildflower guide in Danish/English and they spell Greenland, Groenland as well.

[Lori S.]

C. rotundifolia is very variable here too.  It's a very abundant plant in the Rockies foothills where it turns entire stony plains to blue (a beautiful sight to be seen from the highway while driving to the mountains) - these are much fuller and more robust plants than those pictured from Greenland.  The plants at alpine elevations, though, are skinny, little, few- to single-stemmed plants (not especially dwarfed in height, though) - not very showy at all by comparison.

[Hoy]

Danish must be similar to Norwegian as I have a Greenland wildflower guide in Danish/English and they spell Greenland, Groenland as well.

Written Danish and Norwegian are very similar, not so when spoken. Norwegians usually understand Danes (and Swedes) a little better than vice versa. And regarding Greenland, this island (together with Iceland and the Faeroe Islands (Faeroey meaning sheep-island) once was a part of the kingdom of Norway (from 1261, before that a colony of Norway). When political unions changed in 1814 they were lost to Denmark (meaning "the woods of Danes").

When the Norsemen (actually people from Iceland - with Eiric the Red in front) arrived in the south of Greenland AD1000, this big island was void of people. (The Inuits arrived later from north and west.) People from mainland Norway moved there too. They built 280 farms and 16 churches. The greenlanders depended on regular shipping of goods from Bergen and trade with the mainland. When this commerce petered out the original Norse greenlanders disappeared from history. According to one theory some of them were taken by Portuguese pirates and brought to The Canary Islands as slaves at the sugar plantations (some genetic evidence).
When the new Norwegian and Danish colonization began in 1721 they found only Inuits.

I hadn't thought to write all this history but "the pencil" ran away, your pictures, Todd, got me think of this. Need to go to see for myself!

[IMYoung]

I've come late to this lovely thread.... wonderful photos ,Todd, just super and I have had my pleasure enhanced by Trond's histroy notes.... thanks, Guys!


Maggi