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Flora

Brother Marie Victorin, in his 1920 book, Croquis Laurentiens, has this comment: «Brion is the only island in the Magdalen archipelago that has been able to keep its virgin lands, the only island that is still mostly forested, the only one where we will get any information about the Islands as they were in the beginning, on how they may have looked on that fine day in 1534 when Jacques Cartier from Saint-Malo dropped anchor off this land he praised so highly to his protector, admiral Brion-Chabot.».

Between the beach and the center of the Islands, there are many different environments: dune, peat bog, salt meadows and marshes, lagoons and forest. Each is characterized by the diverse conditions governing the vegetation community: type of soil, humidity, salinity, slope, microclimate. Each environment has its own particular population of plants.

The most characteristic flora in the archipelago appears in the dune environment, since dunes cover 30% of the total land area in the Îles de la Madeleine. The dunes are covered with beach grass (Short-liguled Ammophila), the most important plant in the archipelago's ecology, since it is essential to the stabilization of the dunes. Its rhizomes (underground stems) fix the sand in the dunes, preventing it from invading and filling up habitats located behind the dunes such as lagoons and ponds. Other plants also grow in the dunes: seabeach sandwort, beach pea, bayberry, black crowberry, starflower, not to mention the magnificent poverty grass, one of the rarest plants in Quebec, which is also found in the Îles de la Madeleine.

In salt meadows and marshes, there are many species of grasses (graminaceous plants) such as carex (sedge grass), bulrushes and spartina. Other species present in this environment: Baltic rush, black sandwort, glasswort, marsh rosemary.

In peat bogs, ponds and freshwater marshes, you will see the following species: sphagnum moss, a plant whose stems grow upward year after year while the base decomposes slowly, creating the peat bog. Peat bogs are a perfect environment for our two carnivorous plants: the pitcher plant and the dew plant (round-leaved sundew), as well as the grass-pink orchid and the hare's tail (tufted bog-cotton, Eriophorum vaginatum). Dense colonies of gorgeous blue flag grow in freshwater marshes, as do the buckbean (marsh trefoil), the giant bur reed, the marsh cinquefoil and the sheep laurel (dwarf laurel, lambkill Kalmia).

The forested area is not large, but it does offer many interesting plants. There are, of course, the berries: bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), Rose twisted-stalk (Streptopus roseus), fetid currant (skunk currant, Ribes glandulosum), raspberries. Other plants also flourish in this environment: Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), stemless (common) lady's slipper (Cypripedum acaule), yellow clintonia (Clintonia borealis), wild lily-of-the-valley (mayflower), twinflower (Linnaea borealils) and Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora). It is interesting to note that on Île Brion, 70% of the land is forested, compared with only 21% on the rest of the archipelago. This came about because the first Madelinots had to cut wood to build houses and boats, to farm and to heat.

In summer, fields, meadows, even the roadsides are ablaze with wildflowers of all kinds: Some of the plants you can expect to see: ox-eye daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), buttercup (Ranunculus acris), red clover (Trifolium pratense), white clover (Trifolium repens), alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum), rabbit-foot clover (Trifolium arvense, bird vetch (Canada pea, Vicia cracca), yellow melilot (Melolotus officinalis), Canada goldenrod (Solidago Canadensis), pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum).


If you want to explore these areas for botanical purposes, it helps to have some training or the services of a knowledgeable guide. On the other hand, a book like Plantes Sauvages du bord de la mer from the Groupe Fleurbec, can be of great help.