Mountain Park: a plant refugium in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

Abstract

It is suggested that the area in the vicinity of Mountain Park, Alberta, (52°50′ N; 117°20′ W) in the Canadian Rocky Mountains was a refugium during the Wisconsin period, where alpine and montane bryophytes and flowering plants survived the glaciation in situ. Evidence for this view includes data derived from geological investigations and from the present distribution of a number of bryophyte and angiosperm species. Alternative explanations to account for these distributions are discussed and reasons for rejecting them as highly improbable are presented.