Photo evidence from social media claims to have flowers growing in Antarctica

In September 21, a photo posted on Instagram shows a scenery of plants (specifically flowers) growing on land, with icebergs floating on the water in the background.

"Flowers are now starting to bloom in Antarctica and experts say this is not good news", reads text around the image. "This would be the first evidence of accelerated ecosystem response in Antarctica that is directly associated as a consequence of global warming, according to Nicoletta Cannone, a professor of ecology at the University of Insubria."

The post garnered more than 2,000 likes in two weeks.

The photo in the social media post appears on the stock photo website Alamy, where it is labeled, "Iceberg floating in the water off the coast of Greenland. Flowers on the shore. Nature and landscapes of Greenland."

A spokesperson for the British Antarctic Survey said that the photo "most definitely does not show Antarctic plants."

Moreover, Antarctica is home to only two plants called Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis). “The flowers in the photo are definitely not the two Antarctic flowering plants," Matt Davey, an ecologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, wrote in an email.

Although the social media posts mislead, both Greenland and Antarctica have been losing ice sheet mass -- with the highest loss rate observed during the 2010–2019 period -- and are projected to continue to do so in the future with hotter temperatures, according to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Currently, the posts on social media (Instagram) have been tagged as partly false, and with mixed reaction to the news in the comments.