320125c Juncus arcticus subsp. alaskanus Hultén
Distribution
West Chukotka: Rare
South Chukotka: Scattered
East Chukotka: Frequent
Western Alaska: Frequent
Northern Alaska - Yukon: Frequent
Central Canada: Scattered
Southern Arcti Tundra: Scattered
Shrub Tundra: Scattered
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Frequent
- Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 39, 1: 418 (1944). Holotype (GH): Alaska: Wiseman, leg. E. Scamman 998. - Juncus balticus var. alaskanus (Hultén) A.E. Porsild, Bull. Natl. Mus. Canada 146: 60 (1957) comb. illeg.. - Juncus arcticus var. alaskanus (Hultén) S.L. Welsh, Anderson's Fl. Alaska: 611 (1974).
2n=
80. - Far East (N), Alaska. - At least three reports, the Far East ones published for "arcticus" but probably belonging to "alaskanus".
Geography: Asian (NE) - amphi-Beringian - North American (NW): RFE ALA CAN.
Notes: The combination Juncus balticus var. alaskanus (Hultén) A.E. Porsild (1957) is illegitimate as there is no reference to basionym, mandatory for combinations published after 01.01.1953, see ICBN.
Some Russian authors (e.g., Tolmachev 1963; Egorova PAF proposal), and also Hultén (1968a), have accepted subsp. alaskanus as far west in Eurasia as northeastern European Russia and to be largely sympatric with but more southern than subsp. arcticus. Yurtsev commented that Tolmachev (1963) considered subsp. alaskanus to be a subarctic race occurring in parallel with the more arctic subsp. arcticus throughout most parts of northern Eurasia. Some authors have applied this 'sympatric' model in North America (e.g., Hultén 1962, 1968a). Another, 'allopatric', model was proposed for Siberia by Kovtonyuk (1987) who considered subsp. arcticus and subsp. alaskanus to be nearly separate western and eastern races and drew the line between them along the Kolyma River between Siberia and the Russian Far East. The "allopatric" treatment was applied for North America by Porsild and Cody (1980) in accepting two major races - a northeastern subsp. arcticus and a northwestern subsp. alaskanus - but probably with some range overlap and intermediates. No comparative investigation of Asian and North American material has been undertaken more recently. The 'sympatric' and 'allopatric' treatments are probably based on different diagnostic characters. We follow the 'allopatric' approach for both Eurasia and North America.
Higher Taxa
- Juncus arcticus [320125,species]