Abstract

The forms and the type of substrate that constitutes the proglacial landforms determine the type of vegetation that colonizes them. In this article, the vegetation that covers proglacial landforms in four glacier valleys of the region of Magallanes are described, analyzing the floristic composition and species richness on the landforms of each glacier. One determined that the succession goes towards the climax of the forests of Nothofagus in the substrates with good drainage, moraines, alluviums, lacustrine terraces, or towards the climax of the ciperaceous moorland or Sphagnum bog in the substrates with deficient drainage, like depressions between moraines with clays, or moraine material with clays locked up between moraines arcs. In valleys glaciers the greater species richness tends to be in bottom moraines, due to the existence of numerous microsites. It is ratified that the first tree species that colonize on glacial valleys are Nothofagus betuloides, N. antarctica and Embothrium coccineum.