A fruitful opportunity

After a fast range expansion in the first centuries, the spread of Salix alba, the spread of the first tree of Antarctica quickly stopped with the occupancy of the most optimal areas. Trees are not found yet outside the Antarctic peninsula, which possess the main ice-free areas of the continent. The main limiting factors of this willow species are the short and near freezing summers, which prevent the plant growth. 

However, other new woody plants were able to go deeper, colonizing even some locations of East Antarctica: the genus of cranberries and blueberries (Vaccinium spp.). The genus reached the continent in the third millennia, with the first confirmed  being in 3129, with the discovery of a thicket of lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) in Livingston Island, a Vaccinum species which was widely present already in the subantarctic island of South Georgia during the second millennia. After that, other 2 species shortly arrived in the next decades. While Salix species are mostly dispersed by wind, Vaccinium species are mainly transported by birds: due to the lack of frugivorous passerines, the most plausible responsible for the arrival of Vaccinium  in Antarctica are sheathbills, a group of omnivorous shorebirds of this polar region. 

A scientific research made by the team of the neo-latin botanist Santos Marcos Marino was done in 3191 to understand the invasive potential of Vaccinium: the result showed that Vaccinium myrtillus, the european blueberry, could potentially become the most impactful botanical association of the entire Antarctica. This results have shown to be correct, far too correct: especially in northern latitudes, Vaccinium myrtillus formed nearly monospecific association after few years of colonization. No invasive species has proven to be so aggressive in such harsh alien ecosystem.

Despite the undoubtful invasiveness of the genus, cranberries and blueberries are thought to become one of the keystone species of future antarctic land ecosystems: the plant is already plentifully used by 5 species of birds and a not determined number of invertebrates. Moreover, thanks to its terraforming capacity, Vaccinium will surely help in transforming the inhospitable lands of Antarctica in a more liveable place.