340104 Elymus alaskanus (Scribn. & Merr.) Á. Löve
- Á. Löve, Taxon 19: 299 (1970). - Agropyron alaskanum Scribn. & Merr., Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 13: 85 (1910). Holotype (US-592341): Alaska: Circle City, 18. Aug. 1899, leg. W.H. Osgood. - Agropyron boreale subsp. alaskanum (Scribn. & Merr.) Melderis, Ark. Bot., n. s., 7, 1: 19 (1968).
Geography: Circumpolar-alpine.
Notes: Elven and Murray: There is a major discrepancy between the treatment of Tzvelev and those of Campbell and Soreng in Soreng et al. (2003) and Barkworth et al. (2007) concerning how widely Elymus alaskanus should be circumscribed. Tzvelev considered E. alaskanus a narrowly distributed northwestern North American species and accepted two more widespread species, E. kronokensis and E. sajanensis, each with several subspecies. Campbell and Soreng in Soreng et al. (2003) accepted a broadly circumscribed E. alaskanus including E. kronokensis and E. sajanensis, with three subspecies in North America. Barkworth et al. (2007) had an intermediate view of E. alaskanus as a North American and Russian Far East species with two subspecies. The matter has nomenclatural importance. Within Elymus, the species name "alaskanus" 1910 has priority before "kronokensis" 1915 and "sajanensis" 1935. Melderis (1980) considered E. kronokensis a synonym of E. alaskanus and included in it the plants named as "borealis", "scandicus", and "subalpinus". Tzvelev (in comment) does not agree with a merger of E. alaskanus and E. kronokensis. Barkworth et al. (2007) considered E. alaskanus and E. hyperarcticus as mainly North American taxa and as subspecies of one species. We deviate from that viewpoint by tentatively including a major Eurasian race, i.e., we mainly follow Campbell and Soreng in Soreng et al. (2003). We enter the proposed subsp. villosus and subsp. caeruleus provisionally because we are not convinced that they are taxa.