Wet or moist ground supports scurvygrass Cochlearia officinalis, marsh-marigold Caltha palustris and common valerian Valeriana officinalis.
The monotypic Pringlea antiscorbutica, the Kerguelen Island cabbage, has no near ally in the southern hemisphere, but is closely related to the northern Cochlearia.
Of Phanerogams, only the Dryas octopetala covers small areas of the debris, interspersed with isolated Cochlearia, &c., and, where a layer of thinner clay has been deposited in sheltered places, the surface is covered with saxifrages, &c.; and a carpet of mosses allows the arctic willow (Salix polaris) to develop. Where a thin sheet of humus, fertilized by lemmings, has accumulated, a few flowering plants appear, but even so their brilliant flowers spring direct from the soil, concealing the developed leaflets, while their horizontally spread roots grow out of proportion; only the Salix lanata rises to 7 or 8 in., sending out roots I in.