Panarctic Flora

3309071 Carex ramenskii Kom.

• Kom., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 13: 164 (1914). Holotype (LE): Russian Far East: Kamchatka, 28. Aug. 1908, leg. L.G. Ramensky. - Carex subspathacea subsp. ramenskii (Kom.) T.V. Egorova, Bot. Zhurn. 75: 864 (1990).

2n= Not known, but see C. subspathacea.
Not included: A report of 2n = 80 for C. "ramenskyi" from northern Yakutia (Zhukova and Petrovsky 1987b) must belong to C. subspathacea.

Geography: Amphi-Atlantic & amphi-Pacific/Beringian.

Notes: Elven, Murray, and Solstad: We are not certain what Carex ramenskii really is, and we have not had any type material available for inspection. There are four different interpretations: (1) a non-arctic Far East species with almost no finds north of Kamtchatka (Kozhevnikov 1988); (2) a North Pacific subspecies of C. subspathacea (Egorova 1999) distributed north to East Chukotka (Egorova PAF proposal; Sekretareva 1999); (3) a North Pacific vicariant of the North Atlantic C. salina (Hultén); or (4) a stabilized hybrid species from C. lyngbyei x C. subspathacea (Standley et al. 2002). We find support for the last-mentioned interpretation. The Beringian and Atlantic material we have studied (ALA, ICEL, O) divides on C. lyngbyei, C. subspathacea, variable pollen-sterile (putative) hybrids, and morphologically intermediate but pollen-fertile C. ramenskii. Carex lyngbyei and C. subspathacea co-occur in Kamtchatka (Kozhevnikov 1988) from where C. ramenskii was described. Until better investigated, we accept C. ramenskii as most likely a hybrid species with the suggested parentage. If so, it occurs also in the North Atlantic regions, in Iceland and Greenland. As there are two races of C. lyngbyei, C. ramenskii should probably be accepted with two races or nothosubspecies, one in the Pacific regions and another in the Atlantic ones. No name is available for the Atlantic plant.