3309071b Carex ramenskii Atlantic race
Distribution
Northern Iceland: Scattered
Western Greenland: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Rare
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Scattered
Geography: Amphi-Atlantic: ICE GRL.
Notes: Elven and Solstad: We presume this race developed from Carex lyngbyei subsp. lyngbyei x C. subspathacea. A majority of authors (e.g., Hultén 1958, 1971b; Chater 1980; Kristinsson 2008) have accepted C. salina from Iceland. If C. salina is hybridogeneous from C. paleacea and C. subspathacea, we should note that C. paleacea is absent from Iceland and Greenland. We have studied the Icelandic plants assigned to C. salina (AMNH, ICEL). They constitute a fairly homogeneous material but deviate from Scandinavian C. salina, including material from the type region of Troms, in morphological traits suggesting an origin from C. lyngbyei subsp. lyngbyei x C. subspathacea (e.g., much darker scales), and they strongly resemble the Alaskan and Chukotkan plants we assign to C. ramenskii. As in Alaska, pollen and fruit fertile plants constitute a morphologically consistent majority, whereas some nearly or entirely pollen sterile plants suggest a few primary hybrids and perhaps not very efficient back-crossing of C. ramenskii with the presumed parents.
There are vouchers (in O) from southwestern Greenland of a plant similar to Icelandic C. ramenskii. They have been assigned previously to C. salina. Standley et al. (2002) excluded C. salina from Greenland: "Reports of the species from Greenland are based on plants of Carex subspathacea or hybrids of C. nigra with C. subspathacea or C. lyngbyei". Characters in the Greenland material seem to exclude C. nigra as a possible parent but conform to a parentage from the two others. We accept occurrence of C. ramenskii in Greenland. Carex lyngbyei occurs as rare in southern Greenland (Böcher et al. 1978).