Japanese Timberlines and Some Geographic Comparisons

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Abstract
The timberlines were visited on Mt. Fuji, Japan North Alps and Hokkaido. Woody vegetation includes conifer forest, which is evergreen except for Latrix leptolepis; Pinus pumila scrub, extensive above the forest limits except on recent volcanoes; Betula ermani woodland, which in some places dominates the uppermost forest belt; broadleaved scrub of genera such as deciduous Alnus, Sorbus and Weigela, and evergreen Rhododendron and Ilex, growing in areas of deep snow and dwarf bamboo (Sasa s.l.) which forms competitive undergrowth and extends above the forest limit. The growth form of tree conifers is influenced by snow which, where deep or prolonged, causes mechanical and physiological damage. However, snow also protects inadequately hardened shoots from winter desiccation. Wind-flagging occurs locally. P. pumila does not tolerate persistent snow, but has high resistance to winter desiccation, which probably correlates with slow growth. The flexible stems of broadleaved shrubs yield to snow pressure and the plants leaf out quickly when released from the snow pack. Similar scrub grows on snow-slide areas in North America and Europe, but there is also a parallel with the subalpine scrub of New Zealand, which develops best where summers are cool, cloudy and wet, as at Japanese timberlines, although winter snow cover in the New Zealand mountains is thin. Tall evergreen shrubs such as R. brachycarpum recall species of Himalayan, tropical and Southern Hemisphere mountains. P. pumila scrub is physiognomically similar to the P. mugo scrub of central Europe, but appears to occupy a higher altitudinal zone. In conformity with Japanese botanists, this zone is regarded as alpine and it is compared with that of Mt. Kenya [Kenya], which contains the arborescent Senecio keniodendron.

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