Qinngua Valley, also called Qinnguadalen, Kanginsap Qinngua and Paradisdalen, is a valley in southern

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

, about from the nearest settlement of

Tasiusaq, Kujalleq Tasiusaq is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland, founded in 1933. It is located at the Tasermiut Fjord (), east of Nanortalik. Its population was 42 in 2024. In the Greenlandic language, the name of the settlement me ...

. The valley has the only natural forest in Greenland and is about long, running roughly north to south and terminating at Tasersuaq Lake. The lake drains into Tasermiut Fjord. Mountains rise as much as on either side of the narrow valley. The valley is situated about from the sea and protected from the cold winds coming off the interior

glaciers A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

of Greenland. In total, over 300 species of plants grow in the valley. The forest in Qinngua Valley is a thicket consisting mainly of downy birch (''

Betula pubescens ''Betula pubescens'' (syn. ''Betula alba''), commonly known as downy birch and also as moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch, is a species of deciduous tree, native and abundant throughout northern Europe and northern Asia ...

'') and gray-leaf willow ('' Salix glauca''), growing up to tall. Growing sometimes to tree height is the Greenland mountain ash ('' Sorbus decora''), which is usually a shrub. Green alder (''

Alnus alnobetula ''Alnus alnobetula'' is a common tree widespread across much of Europe, Asia, and North America. Many sources refer to it as ''Alnus viridis'', the green alder, but botanically this is considered an illegitimate name synonymous with ''Alnus alno ...

'') is also found in the valley. It is possible that other forests of this type once existed in Greenland but were cleared by early settlers for firewood or building material. The valley may have been protected natural area since 1930, but the statute of protection is from 2005. Although nearly all of ice-free Greenland has an

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

climate (ET in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

), Qinngua Valley may have a

sub-arctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

( Dfc) climate.

References

{{coord, 60.29, -44.50, dim:20000_region:GL, display=title Valleys of Greenland Flora of Greenland Forests of Denmark Forests of North America