In the Arctic, there is a great abundance of flowers. What is unique about them is that they have adapted to a climate that is "winter" for most of the year, with a very short summer growing period. Most of these plants grow close to the ground.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is due to the fact that taller plants need deep root systems to "anchor" themselves, and this is almost impossible for arctic plants due to the effects of permafrost; the phenomenon whereby the ground stays frozen for most of the year. Because of the short summer, the ground has very little time to thaw so the plants have very little chance to grow deep roots. This is one of the reasons why Canadian forests do not grow all the way to the North Pole! A tall tree needs deep roots. The second cause for small plants is the short summer. Even though the High Arctic gets almost 24 hours of sunlight during the summertime, the actual time between the melting of, and return of, the snow is very short. Thus the plants only have time to quickly bloom and re-seed themselves. During this short time, however, an explosion of colour takes place as each plant tries to soak up as much sunlight as possible!

The Canadian Arctic has not always been the cold, snowy place that many people imagine. With 24 hours of sunlight during the summer, temperatures can get warm, although in some areas the insects force you to wear a lot of clothing. It wasn't that long ago, climatically speaking, when the Arctic was as warm as many places in the tropics!

A scientific expedition has investigated a site on Axel Heiberg Island containing tree stumps and it has discovered that the stumps are the remains of ancient tree trunks, specifically Dawn Redwood and Swamp Cypress. Swamp Cypress? Apparently 45 million years ago, Canada's High Arctic was as warm as Florida is today!