ABOVE: Hamnøy Harbour, Lofoten Islands
© ISTOCK.COM, ANTONYSPENCER
Picking berries in the Norwegian Arctic is a common pastime for people living there. In late summer, the wild, open landscapes are rife with blueberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, and crowberries, all there for the taking. Among berry-picking Norwegians, it is a little-known fact that each species of berry contains multiple subspecies. The secret to distinguishing them involves identifying subtle morphological differences in the plants’ leaves, flowers, and pollen that can be essentially impossible to discern with the naked eye.
These subtle differences have long been known to Inger Greve Alsos, a berry picker and a botanist and molecular biologist at the University of Tromsø, 220 miles above the Arctic circle. Along with colleagues at the university museum’s research center, Alsos is currently taking part in the formidable task of genetically identifying not just all the species and subspecies of berries, but all the flora ...
