Return of the megaherbs: plant colonisation of derelict ANARE station buildings on sub-Antarctic Heard Island

Both bryophytes and vascular plants are colonising many parts of the now derelict buildings. On these structures and artefacts, the authors recorded four species of vascular plants out of the 11 that occur on Heard Island and nine species of mosses out of the 37 recorded from Heard Island.

The vascular plants species most frequently recorded colonising structures and aretefacts was Pringlea antiscorbutica (288 occurrences), with the area colonised varying from 0.3 cm squared to 430.0 cm squared. Mueleriella crassifolia was the moss species that was most frequently recorded (14 occurrences), colonising areas from 2.1 cm squared to 12.9 cm squared. The highest number of bryophyte species (seven) was recorded on the stone and cement of the 'water tank'.