Fig. 1

According to local lore at Vannøya in Karlsøy, Troms, northern Norway, the large stands of Leymus arenarius at the sand dunes at Skipsfjorden represent a kind of grain which sprouted from the cargo of a wrecked Dutch ship – ignoring the fact that the species is indigenous and widely distributed along the Norwegian coast. Photograph: Torbjørn Alm September 6, 2001