Panarctic Flora

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3306 Trichophorum Pers.

GBIF

Notes: We have discussed whether the arctic representatives belong to one or two genera and their names. Goetghebeur (1998) accepted the name Trichophorum and rejected Baeothryon as that name is based on a species of Eleocharis (Salmenkallio and Kukkonen 1989). Holub (1984) believed Scirpus cyperinus L. to be the generic type of Trichophorum. He proposed to keep T. alpinum apart as the genus Eriophorella Holub. However, T. alpinum is now the designated and conserved type of Trichophorum (McNeill et al. 2006: 283). Alternatively, Tzvelev (1999b) proposed to separate T. cespitosum, T. uniflorum, and T. pumilum in the genus Kreczetoviczia. This proposal has merit from several sources of evidence but is not yet generally accepted. One argument in its favour, in addition to morphology, is that the chromosome number of Trichophorum alpinum corresponds to Eriophorum and not to the other species currently included in Trichophorum. Molecular studies show Trichophorum to be heterogeneous (polyphyletic) but do not include all the relevant species (Simpson et al. 2007; Muasya et al. 2009).

Higher Taxa