XVI International Botanical Congess

Vascular flora of Wrangel Island (Somnitelnaya Bay) contains dwarf shrubs 4.9%, taprooted polycarpic herbs 35%, short-rhizomatous polycarpic herbs 12.8%, tufted polycarpic graminoids 13.6%, long-rhizomatous polycarpic herbs 19.8%, stoloniferous polycarpic herbs 5.5%, monocarpic herbs 1.8%. Among herbs rosette plants predominate (86%). The insular populations as compared with the continental ones of the same species show: a decreased individual size, slower growth, formation of the cushion, tuft and obligately prostrate forms instead of erect and hemiprostrate ones, an increased number of rosette leaves at the expense of the stem ones, increased role of seed propagation in the renewal of high arctic plant populations, increased population density in species, propagating by seeds, which is favoured by the incomplete vegetating of mineral surface.