The Antarctic botanical zone has been defined as all land south of 60° latitude together with the South Shetland, South Orkney and South Sandwich rslands (Skottsberg 1960, Lindsay 1978). This zone is divided into two regions (Wace 1960, Holgate 1964), the maritime Antarctic region consisting of the west coast the of An tarctic Peninsula and the Antarctic Islands and the continental Antarctic region com prising the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and the rest of the Antarctic Continent. The first region has an oceanic climate with high relative humidity and a high precipitation in comparison with continental Antarctica (Lindsay 1978). This envi ronment supports two vascular plants, over 200 species of lichen and 90 bryophytes (Smith 1973). On the other hand the continental region presents an area of low precipitation, low relative humidity and is one of the harshest and most inhospitable environments on earth.