Iceland, best time to visit and some other questions

As the responses have been, um, light, I'll pitch in: I can't speak to the plants n' stuff, but I have been to Iceland as a solo lady traveler. I did not camp, but I did do a handful of long walks into the hills. I stayed on 4x4 roads, as I was finding that marked trails are a relative term in Iceland (caveat: I am not the greatest trails finder). I barely encountered any other people once I was off the main road. Also, bear in mind this was in late September/early October, so this was not really the high season. I felt completely comfortable by myself, and would have happily kept walking into the mountains had I come with the proper gear. I really would like to do a longer trek into the interior during the summer. Do it!

Yeah, its been a pretty light in terms of responses. The information provided has been helpful. Thanks. I'm definitely going, I just have to pick dates!

Okay, well, I did do a 10 day road trip around the entire ring road and also the Westfjords. I didn't answer your question because I stayed in hostels the whole time, but I'll speak to what I can. LOTS of people camped. I saw campers pretty much everywhere (even in some very remote locations). There are two ways to do it: traditional tent, and people who rented http://www.kukucampers.is (there are several companies that rent that sort of thing). I don't know what your tolerance for cold, windy rain is, but except for the Lake Myvatn area (gorgeously sunny and calm in the middle of summer) camping in a tent might get rather uncomfortable. Also, many hotels have a sort of camping area on their grounds, and you can pay to use their showers/laundry/eat breakfast, and most of them will also put stuff in the fridge for you overnight for free. And offer free wifi in the lobby. My only regret is that I did not go backpacking in the Westfjords. Apparently there are some pretty awesome areas up there that are only accessible on foot. The place I am talking about is http://www.ust.is/hornstrandir. My understanding is that you can backpack alone there if you want, or hook up with a group that tracks arctic foxes. I think backpacking in Iceland would be pretty safe, as long as you already had backpacking experience and didn't try to do crazy shit by yourself, like go into the Highlands. I would definitely have a satellite phone if I was going that route, though. Most of Iceland doesn't have a lot of plants (except for a large variety of mosses and lichens - look around on Snaefellsnes peninsula for tons of that). The area around Lake Myvatn has the most wildflower filled landscape. Another cool botanical feature of Lake Myvatn are the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimo that come to the surface during the day and go back down at night. They only exist in two lakes in the world, so that's kind of a cool botanical feature. Another cool and rare feature are http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/earth/glacier-mice-offer-a-micro-habitat.html?_r=0, which are these moss covered rocks that exist on only a few glaciers in the world (including some in Iceland). Also, I noticed this at several campgrounds. There are http://grapevine.is/Travel/ReadArticle/Travel-Picking-Wild-Berries in Iceland, but they don't grow in bushes like here. They grow in mossy patches on the ground. I saw tons of campers gathering big bowls full to eat with their meals. They are pretty tasty - much more tart and less sweet than the ones over here. Also, http://en.ni.is/botany/vegetation/vegetation-types/ is a useful list of the few types of vegetation that are on the island. Have fun with your trip! Iceland was one of the very best places I ever visited and 10 days was definitely not even enough. I cannot wait to go back one day.

Oh, and on a practical note: make absolutely sure you get yourself a credit card with a chip in it (and American Express won't work, they take that nowhere). You will be amazed at how many places will not take chip-less credit cards, including virtually every single gas station. Ideally you get a credit card with chip + pin technology, because you still might run into problems at gas stations without that.

I can't add a whole lot, since I didn't camp and I don't know much about botany, but I was there in August a couple years ago and one place that immediately comes to mind is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaftafell. There were a ton of people camping there, and it was one of the very few places with any sort of rich vegetation.