Quaternary refugia of north European trees

An attempt is made to investigate the nature of cold-stage distributions for those forest trees which today extend to northern Europe. The trees occupied mid-altitude sites in the mountains of southern Europe, especially in the western Balkans and Italy during the last cold stage. These areas would have had a suitable climate, and it is argued that the trees could easily have survived there at densities low enough to escape detection in the pollen record. -from Authors