320210-11 The Luzula nivalis aggregate L. kjellmaniana, L. nivalis
Geography: Circumpolar-alpine.
Notes: Egorova et al.: The range of the broadly amphi-Pacific/Beringian Luzula kjellmaniana strongly overlaps with that of the arctic circumpolar L. nivalis. The two plants differ ecologically. Luzula nivalis is mainly a plant of damp mossy tundra, shallow arctic mires, and snowbeds, and it is more or less calciphilous. Luzula kjellmaniana occupies a much broader span of sites, damp to dry meadows and heaths and often in more exposed places, and it is edaphically indifferent. Nevertheless, we have observed the two close together in several places in the Yukon Territory, Alaska, Chukotka, and northeastern Siberia, They are distinctly different morphologically even when sympatric. In the large material in ALA, we (Murray and Elven) could easily assign every specimen to species. We accept two species.
Higher Taxa
- Luzula [3202,genus]