271401 Coeloglossum viride (L.) Hartm.
Distribution
Northern Iceland: Frequent
Northern Fennoscandia: Scattered
Kanin - Pechora: Scattered
Polar Ural - Novaya Zemlya: Scattered
Yamal - Gydan: Rare
Taimyr - Severnaya Zemlya: Rare
Anabar - Onenyo: Rare
Kharaulakh: Frequent
West Chukotka: Rare
South Chukotka: Scattered
East Chukotka: Rare
Western Alaska: Scattered
Northern Alaska - Yukon: Present only in the Borderline Arctic
Hudson Bay - Labrador: Rare
Southern Arcti Tundra: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Frequent
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Frequent
- Hartm., Handb. Skand. Fl.: 329 (1820). - Satyrium viride L., Sp. Pl.: 944 (1753). Lectotype (LINN): Europe. Herb. Linn. 1055.3 (Renz 1984: 32). - Dactylorhiza viridis (L.) R.M. Bateman, Pridgeon & M.W. Chase, Lindleyana 12: 129 (1997).
Geography: Circumboreal-polar.
Notes: The infraspecific variation in Coeloglossum viride is appreciable and not resolved. Two allopatric plants have been proposed as major races or species: the mainly Eurasian subsp. viride and the North American and Pacific Asian subsp. bracteatum. Rebristaya (PAF proposal, comment) accepted them as two species - C. viride and C. bracteatum - but the reported morphological differences are small and mixed geographically.
Besides subsp. bracteatum, three races have been suggested in northwestern Europe (Elven et al. 2005): a comparatively tall-grown slender European lowland plant (probably Linnaeus' Satyrium viride), a low-grown northern European mountain plant, and a coarse, broad-leaved plant present at least in Iceland and in southwestern Norway. The last-mentioned one is much more different from the two others than they are among themselves. The Icelandic plant was first described as Peristylis islandicus, later reduced to subspecies or variety. The name subsp./var. islandicum has been misapplied to the low-grown European mountain plant, e.g., by Selander (1950) and Hylander (1966) in northwestern Europe, by Hultén (1968a) in Alaska, and by Rebristaya (PAF comment) in general. The low-grown northern European mountain plant reaches the Arctic in Norway and northwestern European Russia but may be absent from northeastern European Russia, Siberia, the Russian Far East, and North America. This northern European mountain plant differs in general habit and in some features (e.g., length of bracts relative to flowers) from those of northern Asia and northwestern North America but less so from the type of C. viride.
There is an unresolved and maybe phylogeographically interesting variation in this species. Sheviak and Catling (2002a) discussed the variation but refrained from accepting races. We provisionally enter subsp. viride (including both the tall-grown lowland and the low-grown mountain plants in Europe), subsp. islandicum, and subsp. bracteatum, not because we are confident with the division but to focus some attention on the variation in this plant.
Higher Taxa
- Coeloglossum [2714,genus]