Panarctic Flora

Browse

3309013 Carex vaginata Tausch

2n= 30 32. - Europe (N, C). - At least five reports.

Geography: Circumboreal-polar.

Notes: Russian authors (e.g., Egorova 1999) have accepted two eco-geographical races as subsp. vaginata and subsp. quasivaginata. The former is mainly temperate European. The latter is widely circumboreal-polar, in Europe mainly arctic-alpine but in Siberia and North America also boreal. There are some morphological differences, mainly quantitative ones, between the two. We accept them but the name "quasivaginata" is not available for the second subspecies which is entered below as subsp. algida.

Elven and Solstad: Material from Iceland (ICEL) is best assigned to subsp. vaginata. The material from the northernmost Norwegian province (Finnmark) divides on two groups: that from the boreal parts belongs to subsp. vaginata, that from the alpine and arctic parts to subsp. algida and without observed transitional specimens. What about Russia? The restricted sample we have inspected of plants from the arctic parts of Russia and Siberia (O and S) belongs to subsp. algida.

Higher Taxa