The Purple Mountain Saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia), is an iconic Arctic plant, and the flora emblem of the Canadian Territory of Nunavut. This is just one of the hundreds of Arctic plant species the team will encounter along the Coppermine River.
Photo Credit: Paul C. Sokoloff / © Canadian Museum of Nature

Botanists to collect plants from far northern land

Four people have travelled by helicopter to a remote and underexplored area of Nunavut in Canada’s north to survey and collect hundreds of plants.  They are part of an ambitious project by the Canadian Museum of Nature to create a flora, or scientific reference for about 800 species of plants in the Canadian Arctic and northern Alaska. They will examine the limits of where trees grow, to see whether that is moving as the climate changes and the tundra-like vegetation that grows beyond. This will include several varieties of trees stunted by the harsh weather.

RCI’s Lynn Desjardins spoke with Paul Sokoloff, a research assistant in the museum’s botany department just before he and other team members left.

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