Plant life on land on the Faroe Islands

In 1967, R.H. MacArthur and EO Wilson published the major work The Theory of Island Biogeography, in which they postulated that the species richness of a given island depends on the size of the island and its distance from the nearest mainland. In short: The smaller and more remote an island is, the fewer species you can expect to find. This perfectly illustrates the Faroe Islands, which, in comparison with the nearest large mainlands, have a fairly sparse plant life. For the same reason, the greatest richness in species is also found on Sandoy, Suðuroy, Vágar, Eysturoy and Streymoy, which are the only islands where more than 200 different plant species have been recorded.

If you include adventive and introduced species, a total of 843 different plant species have been found in the Faroe Islands. Most are mosses (Bryophyta) and angiosperms (Angiospermae), which are represented by 287 and 401 different species.

Immigration of plant life

It was not possible to establish plant life in the Faroe Islands until towards the end of the last Ice Age some 11,000 years ago when large land masses began to emerge from the melting ice. It is unknown how the first plants came to the islands, but they probably came as seeds carried by the wind or stuck on seabirds. Studies of the seed bank in old soil layers have revealed that the first plants that came to the Faroe Islands were hardy species that typically grow on bare soil in mountain areas. Early plant life probably resembled the old plant communities found on the western side of Eiðiskollur and on high mountains in the northern part of the country to a large extent, and included species such as eightpetal mountain-avens (Dryas octopetala) and rooted poppy (Papaver radicatum). Today, however, the latter can no longer be found on Eiðiskollur.

As the ice disappeared, species such as fir clubmoss (Huperzia selago), rose root (Rhodiola rosea), purple stonecrop (Sedum villosum) and sea sandwort (Honckenya peploides) also managed to establish themselves in the open, gravelly landscape. In the time since then, dwarf birch (Betula nana) also thrived on the islands, even though it was still quite cold.

When the temperature and humidity started to rise some 9,000 years ago, the dwarf birch disappeared and was replaced by common juniper (Juniperus communis) in the dry areas and by various species of willow (Salix spp.) in the more humid areas. As the climate became wetter, different species of mosses (Bryophyta) began to dominate, and while willow thrived, common juniper disappeared.

About 7,000 years ago, the climate became drier again, and heather (Calluna vulgaris) spread over large parts of the lowlands where it replaced the willow scrubs. The heather shared the landscape with various grasses, which have grown well in the Faroe Islands almost since the last Ice Age.

With the first settlements, livestock and cultivation began to leave their mark on plant life. Especially from around 650 AD the islands’ vegetation changed quite considerably, until it became the plant life seen in the Faroe Islands today. The mountain slopes, where the sheep graze, are characterised by short grass vegetation, although in the infield you can still find heath areas with up to about 200 m high vegetation. If you want a glimpse of a more original Faroese plant life, you must seek out places where the sheep do not have access, or which are otherwise inaccessible to the woollen grazers.

Plant communities

The landscape is diverse, and the variation of the landscape is clearly reflected in the distribution of the individual plant species. Based on aerial photos, habitat types such as grassy mountain sides, heaths, swampy terrain and lakes as well as areas lacking vegetation such as rocky plateaus and areas without grassland have been mapped. The mapping can be used to shed light on the distribution of the individual plant species and to identify how they are distributed in different plant communities.

The largest plant-covered areas are found on the grassy mountain sides. Here, plant life varies with the incline of the slopes, the grazing intensity and the height above sea level. Based on studies of six mountains in the years 2000‑02, botanist Anna Maria Fosaa was able to identify 12 different plant communities, which are divided into four habitat types: shrubs (heaths), wet grassland, open grassland and high mountain vegetation. Two different plant communities can be found on the heaths. One is characterised by heather (Calluna vulgaris) and matgrass (Nardus stricta), while heather and black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) dominate in the other. It is noteworthy that the plant community with heather and black crowberry can only be seen on the south sides of the mountains and only up to 200 m above sea level.

If you move up over 200 m, wet grassland becomes the dominant natural habitat on the mountain sides. Here, three different plant communities have been identified: one with wild thyme (Thymus praecox) and blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) as the dominant species, another characterised by matgrass (Nardus stricta) and common tormentil (Potentilla erecta), and a third where heath bedstraw (Galium saxatile) and sweet vernal grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum) are the most distinctive species.

Further up the mountains, you can find plant communities with viviparous fescue (Festuca vivipara) and either common bent (Agrostis capillaris) or alpine bistort (Bistorta vivipara). In the open grass areas, springy turfmoss (Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus) and wavy hair-grass (Avenella flexuosa) also grow, while island purslane (Koenigia islandica) can be seen in gravel and landslides.

Actual high mountain vegetation only starts to dominate near the mountain tops at an altitude of 500 m. Here, plant life almost becomes arctic with species such as glacier buttercup (Ranunculus glacialis), creeping sibbaldia (Sibbaldia procumbens) and snowbed willow (Salix herbacea). The presence of the hardy large woolly moss (Racomitrium lanuginosum), which allows the plants to take root, is decisive for plant communities at high altitudes. The woolly moss covers the rocks in large pillows and often forms its own plant community. In another of the high mountains plant communities, the moss dominates together with snowbed willow, while in a third it grows together with alpine lady’s mantle (Alchemilla alpina).

Impacts on plant life today and in the future

Since the first immigration, Faroese plant life has been under constant change. Along with changes in e.g. climate conditions, some species have disappeared, while new ones have appeared. This development is also seen today, but has been reinforced with the arrival of humans on the islands. The very intense livestock grazing has left a clear mark on the plant life, but also the human-driven climate change, together with the introduction of non-indigenous plant species, greatly affect the original plant life.

In connection with studies of the plant communities on selected mountain sides, scenarios were proposed for how the plant life will develop if the average temperature rises by just one degree. Even such a modest increase in temperature will probably mean that the plant communities on the lower slopes will spread up the mountain sides, while the communities near the mountain tops will come under pressure and ultimately risk disappearing.

Another significant threat to the natural plant life is the many new plant species that are either introduced deliberately or inadvertently brought to the islands. For example, Canadian pondweed (Elodea canadensis) formerly a popular aquarium plant, which has spread in nature over time and was found at Tórshavn in 2021, for example. In the same year, butterbur (Petasites japonicus) was found at Fuglafjørður. Both are just examples of a number of new, non-indigenous plant species which more frequently are found growing in the wild and which have the potential to become invasive, i.e. to have a negative impact on the natural, indigenous plant life.

Non-indigenous plant species end up on the islands in various ways. Some are accidentally brought in, while others are grown as garden plants and from there spread into the wild. Today, species such as lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis) and hummingbird fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica) are abundant in many towns and villages, and particularly hummingbird fuchsia is increasingly seen in the wild where it grows in gorges and on rocks where the sheep cannot reach it. Other garden plants also seem to be spreading, and the potentially highly invasive Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) is now growing wild in some towns.

Tree planting in the Faroe Islands

There has never been a forest in the Faroe Islands, but after successful attempts at planting trees in Iceland in the 19th century, the question was raised as to whether something similar would be possible in the Faroe Islands. Already in 1885, the city council of Tórshavn had, at the request of the chief administrative officer and with support from the Løgting, tried to establish a plantation in Gundadalur, but the attempt failed when sheep accessed the area and destroyed the plants.

The idea received renewed interest in 1902, when the Faroese member of the Danish Parliament Jóannes Patursson asked the Danish Heath Society for help to explore the possibilities of establishing a plantation on the islands. At the end of July 1902, the Danish Heath Society sent the 29-year-old Christian Emil Flensborg to the Faroe Islands from Iceland where he had participated in the Icelandic tree planting experiments. Together with a report from Flensborg, Patursson submitted a proposal to the Løgting in September 1902 for the establishment of a plantation and a nursery outside Tórshavn. The proposal was unanimously adopted, and the first trees were planted in 1904. This time the trees took root, and today the plantation is located in central Tórshavn and has over time grown around the old tree planting area.

In 1912, the Løgting decided to expand the tree planting experiments, and in 1914, plantations were established in Kunoy, Selatrað and Hoydalar. A plantation was also established in Trongisvágur on Suðuroy in 1924 and another in Kerjum north of Tórshavn in 1934. So far 25 plantations have been established on the islands, and more are on the way.

An actual Løgting act on afforestation, the Forest Preservation Act, was not adopted until 1952 after the Faroe Islands took over the afforestation area in 1948. This act made it possible to preserve several of the existing plantations.

In 1968, the Government of the Faroese Islands employed Leivur Trónd Hansen as the Faroe Islands’ first forest manager, and he would play an important role when the newly established Nordic Arboretum Committee contacted the Faroese Government in 1974 with a request to carry out more planting experiments on the islands. From 1977, the Faroe Islands became an independent member of the Nordic Arboretum Committee, and in 1978 a new nursery, Skógrøktin, was established in Hoydalar near Tórshavn. The nursery is the only one in the Faroe Islands and has, for the past 40 years been responsible for the establishment of numerous gardens with large trees, hedges and planting.

Several of the trees were found in South America by dendrologist Søren Ødum and forestry graduate Tróndur Leivsson, son of Leivur Trónd Hansen, who, among other things, brought home 6,500 tree plants from Tierra del Fuego in 1979. They also went to Alaska in 1981 and 1988 and returned to the southern tip of South America in 1992; each time to collect seeds and young plants of trees that might be able to thrive in the Faroe Islands’ cool and humid climate. Tróndur Leivsson was appointed forester in the Faroe Islands in 1987 and held the position until 2015.

Today, the original plantations have become popular recreational areas. Most are owned by the municipalities, and there is growing local interest in expanding and developing them.

Further reading

• Climate on the Faroe Islands
• Fens on the Faroe Islands
• Fresh Waters on the Faroe Islands
• Insects and arachnids on the Faroe Islands
• Landscapes and coasts on the Faroe Islands
• Nature and environmental management
• Wildlife in the sea around the Faroe Islands
• Wildlife on the Faroe Islands

Read more about Nature and landscape on the Faroe Islands