320111 Juncus alpinoarticulatus Chaix
Distribution
Northern Iceland: Frequent
Northern Fennoscandia: Scattered
Kanin - Pechora: Rare
Yamal - Gydan: Rare
Taimyr - Severnaya Zemlya: Rare
East Chukotka: Scattered
Western Alaska: Rare
Northern Alaska - Yukon: Rare
Central Canada: Rare
Hudson Bay - Labrador: Scattered
Western Greenland: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Scattered
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Frequent
- Chaix, Pl. Vapinc.: 74 (1785). Lectotype (P): Switzerland: Oberstafel ("N:o 4 Ober Staffel"), leg. V.A. Haller (Hämet-Ahti 1980b: 342). - Juncus alpinus Vill., Hist. Pl. Dauphiné 2: 233 (1787) nom. illeg..
2n=
40. - Europe, Siberia, Canada, U.S.A., Greenland. - Numerous reports, partly for "alpestris" (Greenland, Scandinavia), "americanus" (North America), "nodulosus" (Canada), and "rariflorus" (northwestern Europe).
Not included: A report of 2n = 80 from Finland (Vaarama in Löve and Löve 1948, for subsp. nodulosus). This number is more typical of J. articulatus and the voucher (if there is any) should be checked.
Geography: Circumboreal-polar.
Notes: Juncus alpinoarticulatus is polymorphic and has been attempted subdivided several times (e.g., Lindquist 1932, 1940; Hylander 1945; Hämet-Ahti 1980b, 1980c, 1986; Kirschner et al. 2002b). Kirschner et al. (2002b) accepted six subspecies.
Hämet-Ahti (1986) and Kirschner et al. (2002b) assigned northern North American material to subsp. americanus (in addition a non-arctic, eastern North American subsp. fuscescens (Fernald) Hämet-Ahti). Subspecies americanus was the only race they accepted from Greenland, and it is reported from geothermal sites and elsewhere in eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East (Kamtchatka, East Chukotka). Brooks and Clemants (2000) remarked that: "The North American variation we have encountered does not fit nicely into the subspecies Hämet-Ahti has recognized ...".
For Europe and western Siberia, Kirschner et al. (2002b) accepted four races, the mainly European and non-arctic subsp. alpinoarticulatus, and three more widespread ones: subsp. alpestris, subsp. fischerianus, and subsp. rariflorus. Kirschner et al. (2002b) mapped subsp. fischerianus to reach the Arctic in northeastern European Russia and northern Siberia, subsp. alpestris in northern Scandinavia and Iceland, and subsp. rariflorus (= subsp. nodulosus) in Iceland and northeastern European Russia. We enter the subspecies but a large part of the arctic material has not been revised.