Panarctic Flora

330507 Eriophorum triste (Th. Fr.) Hadac & Á. Löve

• Hadac & Á. Löve, Bot. Not. 103: 34 (1950). - Eriophorum angustifolium var. triste Th. Fr., Öfvers. Förh. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. 26, 2: 135 (1870). Holotype (UPS!): Norway: Svalbard, "Insulæ Spetsbergenses: Nordfjorden", 11. Aug. 1968, leg. Th.M. Fries. See notes. - Eriophorum angustifolium subsp. triste (Th. Fr.) Hultén, Circumpolar Pl. 1: 58 (1962).

2n= 60. - Europe (N), Far East (N), Canada, Greenland. - Several reports, numerous counts.
Novoselova: A report of 2n = 60 from West Chukotka (Zhukova and Petrovsky 1975, for E. komarovii) probably belongs here.
Not included: Reports of 2n = 60 from Iceland (Löve 1950; Löve and Löve 1956b), see notes.

Geography: Amphi-Beringian (E) - North American (N) - amphi-Atlantic (W): NOR RFE ALA CAN GRL.

Notes: Elven: The collection cited above should probably be regarded as the holotype. Fries assigned the other original material at UPS to a f. uniceps ("Kingsbay", 17.08.1868, leg. Th.M. Fries, two sheets).

Novoselova: Eriophorum triste differs from E. angustifolium s. str. in uppermost leaf sheath funnel-shaped vs. cylindrical; peduncle arcuate, scabrous, up to 2 cm long vs. drooping, mostly smooth, up to 5-10 cm long; flowering spikelets ovoid to almost spherical vs. oblong-ovoid or oblong-elliptical; fruiting heads obovoid vs. bell-shaped or narrowly bell-shaped; scales blackish and without whitish margins vs. brownish grey, greyish, reddish or ferrugineous with white margins; anthers (1.8) 2.5-2.8 (3) mm vs. (2.5) 3-4 (5) mm long; achenes widely obovoid, 2-2.5 mm long vs. oblong-obovoid or oblong-elliptical, (2.5) 2.8-3 (3.5) mm long; and chromosome number 2n = 60 vs. 58.

Elven and Murray: We have confirmed the characters given by Novoselova above on material from North America, Greenland, and Svalbard. They separate reliably between two taxa.

One opinion of E. triste has been as a specialist of high-arctic shallow mires and seepage on clearly calcareous substrates. The problem is that the most easily observed character, the scabrous peduncles, also appears in much more southern plants, i.e., in alpine plants south of the Arctic and in the lowland E. komarovii. Those familiar with E. triste in its arctic (and alpine) sites usually accept it and preferably as species. Those who have relied on herbarium specimens and scabrous peduncles alone are much more reluctant to accept it, and especially skeptical are those who regard it as widespread and largely sympatric with E. angustifolium s. str. (e.g., Tolmachev 1966a in Russia; Hultén 1968a in Alaska; Porsild and Cody 1980 in Canada; Ball & Wujek 2002 in North America).

A closer study of North American material has convinced us to accept E. triste as a distinct and widespread species in the northern and alpine parts of North America and in Greenland, extending slightly into northern Europe in Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya, and into northern Asia in Wrangel Island and northern mainland Chukotka. The southernmost plants we have seen are from the Hudson Bay area and northern British Columbia. As E. triste mainly is a North American (and Greenlandic) species, it is ironic that Russian and European authors have given it attention, whereas it has been largely neglected by North American ones. The separating features from E. angustifolium are not restricted to the scabrous peduncles (which North American authors have looked at and misinterpreted, see E. komarovii), but the subrotund and always short-pedunculate spikes, the white to slightly greyish wool, the lowermost subtending bract which is dark grey to black to the margins, and the flat and spreading basal leaves. These characters immediately distinguish E. triste both from E. angustifolium and from the scabrous-peduncled E. komarovii (spikes narrowly oblong or ovoid, wool often pinkish, lowermost subtending bract hyaline-margined and reddish, peduncles extended, and basal leaves nearly filiform and erect).

A somewhat quixotic argument for E. triste as species is its hybridization pattern. The hybrid species E. x sorensenii (from E. scheuchzeri x E. triste) is present in several regions where E. triste is found. Hybrids between E. angustifolium and E. scheuchzeri must be extremely rare if they exist, in spite of very frequent co-occurrence of the putative parents, often in mixed stands. Inasmuch as E. x sorensenii occurs only within the range of one of the subspecies of E. scheuchzeri (subsp. arcticum), the reason for the different hybridization pattern may be found in that species.

The slight difference in chromosome number between E. angustifolium and E. triste may be less important. 2n = 60 is the only number known from plants that certainly belong to E. triste (Flovik 1943 from Svalbard; Holmen 1952 from Peary Land; Mosquin and Hayley 1966 from Melville Island). However, Löve and Löve (1975a) referred this number, for plants they called E. triste, also from areas where that species otherwise is unknown, e.g., Iceland (see above), and there are at least reports of three counts of 2n = 60 from mainland Chukotka and one from British Columbia. Some of these reports may belong to E. triste as its range now is accepted.