Panarctic Flora

3309084b Carex bigelowii subsp. rigida (Gooden.) W. Schultze-Motel

• W. Schultze-Motel, Willdenowia 4: 326 (1968). - Carex rigida Gooden., Trans. Linn. Soc. London 2: 193, t. 22 (1794), non Schrank (1789). Described from "... in summo vertice montis Snowdon" (Scotland).
• Carex bigelowii subsp. nardeticola Holub, Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 3: 190 (1968). Holotype (PR 36775): Czech Republic: "Krkonose, travnaté hole na Studnicé", 28. June 1916, leg. Fr. Schustler.
• ?Carex saxatilis var. inferalpina Laest., Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal. 11: 287 (1839). Described from northern Sweden. No type material identified. - ?Carex rigida subsp. inferalpina (Laest.) Gorodkov, Zhurn. Russk. Bot. Obshch. 15: 181 (1930).

2n= 68-71. - Europe, Greenland. - At least eight reports.

Geography: Amphi-Atlantic (E) - European (N/C): ICE NOR RUS GRL.

Notes: Three combinations and names have been proposed at subspecific rank for this predominantly European race: subsp. rigida W. Schultze-Motel (Schultze-Motel 1968), subsp. nardeticola Holub (Holub 1968), and subsp. inferalpina Gorodkov (Gorodkov 1930). Schultze-Motel's combination is based on Goodenough's Carex rigida and thereby on alpine plants from Scotland. Holub's name is based on an alpine plant from the Czech Republic. Everyone agree that these two names refer to the same plant. Schultze-Motel's name was published earlier in the year (1968) and has priority. Gorodkov's combination, based on Laestadius' C. saxatilis var. inferalpina, would have priority (1930) if it could be assigned with certainty to this plant. However, specimens annotated or cited by Laestadius as var. inferalpina have been sought for without luck (S, UPS). We suspect that this name refers to something else, perhaps a hybrid or even subsp. bigelowii.

We now assume that subsp. rigida is the major plant of C. bigelowii in Europe but not the only one. Chater (1980) reported it from "C. & N.W. Europe, W. Fennoscandia", in Fennoscandia together with subsp. bigelowii which Schultze-Motel considered as the more frequent ("häufiger") race there. Scandinavian authors have usually not accepted a division of their plants on two subspecies as they did not find the morphological pattern as consistent as described by Schultze-Motel. They have preferred to assign all northwestern European plants (those in Scotland, Fennoscandia, Iceland, Jan Mayen, and also in northeastern Greenland) to one race and as possibly different from southern Greenland and northeastern North American subsp. bigelowii. Investigations we have made in 2006-2009 give morphological support to a wider distribution of two races in Scandinavia, generally sympatric but with different ecological requirements (see subsp. bigelowii) and therefore rarely found together. In addition, a third plant is found in Svalbard (see below).

Also the Greenland material seems to fall into two races, one northern-eastern and one southern-western. Böcher et al. (1957) applied, respectivelly, the names "bigelowii" and "hyperborea" to these but Böcher's "bigelowii" refers to the European concept of subsp. rigida and his "hyperborea" to subsp. bigelowii s. str. Later, Böcher et al. (1978) and Löve and Löve (1975a) accepted subsp. nardeticola as name for the northern-eastern race.

The results of Schönswetter et al. (2008) support the division into two races and the presence of both of them in Scandinavia. The AFLP pattern described by Nakamatte and Lye (2008) needs further support before a taxonomic solution can be based on it. These authors found the samples of C. bigelowii to be nested in two quite different parts of sect. Phacocystis: those from Canada and northwestern Norway together with Newfoundland C. aquatilis, Greenland C. concolor, and two other northeastern North American species (C. gynandra Schwein. and C. torta Boott); those from southern Norway together with Labrador and Finland C. aquatilis and with the Temnemis species of C. paleacea and C. subspathacea. This structure is rather different from the one found by Dragon and Barrington (2008, 2009). A close morphological inspection of the vouchers behind the genetic samples is needed.