Panarctic Flora

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010101 Lycopodium annotinum L.

Geography: Circumboreal-polar.

Notes: We accept two subspecies of Lycopodium annotinum - the temperate to boreal (mainly forest) subsp. annotinum and the northern alpine-boreal to southern arctic (mainly heath) subsp. alpestre - as done by several previous authors (e.g., Hultén 1968a, as subsp. pungens; Rothmaler and Jermy 1993; Hämet-Ahti et al. 1998; Kukkonen 2000, somewhat reluctantly; Moberg and Stenberg 2003; Elven et al. 2005). Differences are found in shoot shape, leaf shape and divergence, and in strobilus. The differences are not merely modificative. The two subspecies are often found together near the alpine and arctic treeline but only a restricted amount of intermediates is found. Some authors accept two species (e.g., Tolmachev 1960, as L. annotinum and L. pungens; Kharkevicz 1985, as L. annotinum and L. dubium). Wagner Jr. and Beitel (1993) did not accept the races for North America. However, the variation pattern is similar to what we see in L. clavatum s. lat. where Wagner Jr. and Beitel (1993) accepted two species. In European material, transitions between the subspecies of, respectively, L. annotinum and L. clavatum are about equally frequent (or rare).

Higher Taxa