Fact Check: Are there Flowers blooming in Antarctica? Viral picture debunked as hilarious memes erupt online

The Antarctic ecosystem might be expanding. Recently, social media has been full of posts and news stating that flowers were blooming in Antarctica due to global warming. Only two species of vascular plants that can grow in the Antarctic ecosystem, the Antarctic hair grass and the Antarctic pearlwort, are growing more rapidly.

Despite the accurate news of the flowers blooming, many pictures have been circulating about the information. Some show the actual images of the plants in Antarctica, but most represent a different landscape altogether. The vegetation portrayed on Daily Loud's September 22 tweet is an image of a landscape from Greenland.

This is a Greenland landscape (Image via X/@DailyLoud)

Although flowers may symbolize happiness and pleasure, that might not happen here. According to scientists, the sudden boost in Antarctic flower growth is due to global warming and may destabilize the local ecosystem. Although some concerned people thought that humanity was doomed, most users had hilarious reactions to the news as they made light of the whole situation.

Netizens made memes about the whole situation (Image via X/@DailyLoud)

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Netizens wonder about real estate prices in Antarctica

A context note intercepted Daily Loud's post on the topic and declared that the image of the vegetation was fake and that it was debunked last year. The note stated that the image was from Greenland and provided a link to a La Republica article proving the same. According to Dreamstime.com, the image is from Disko Bay in West Greenland and was contributed by Sergey Uryadnikov.

Netizens still had a lot to say about the whole ordeal. A few people were concerned about the future, but most X users just made jokes about it. Some wondered what opportunities lay in the Antarctic real estate, while others made some memes. Many people claimed that the whole thing was natural and that global warming was a lie.

Some users were concerned (Image via X/@ohnckoh)

Some users were concerned (Image via X/@WhitneyGrenaway)

Some users were affected (Image via X/@BeaconOfNorth)

Netizens joked about the real estate opportunities (Image via X/@BigM33sh)

Netizens joked about the real estate opportunities (Image via X/@Valdensius)

Netizens joked about the real estate opportunities (Image via X/@codingphase)

Some users thought that the whole thing was a hoax (Image via X/@TheDeanFitz)

Some users believed that the entire thing was a hoax (Image via X/@_Makhanya_)

Some users thought that the entire thing was a hoax (Image via X/@sentient_prime)

Some users believed that the whole thing was a hoax (Image via X/@0xEnjooyer)

Netizens made memes about the situation (Image via X/@MileyEdition)

Netizens made memes about the problem (Image via X/@itsmattnow)

There are two native vascular plants in Antarctica: the Antarctic Pearlwort, also known as the Antarctic Carnation or the Colobanthus quitensis, and the Antarctic hair grass, also known as the Deschampsia Antarctica. Authentic images of both are provided in the tweets below:

Even though these plants have always been in Antarctica, their rapid increase in growth is what is now a factor of concern. According to scientific studies, plants from the Signy island grew ten times faster from 2009 to 2019 than from 1960 to 2009. This rapid change could occur throughout the entirety of Antarctica.

The downside is that it could lead to non-native plant growth, which may become invasive to the natural environment. The rapidly growing plants may also compete with and deeply affect other natural vegetation like mosses. The links to rapid plant growth and global warming are highly evident to researchers. Overall, this may lead to a destabilization of the local biodiversity and ecosystem.