Panarctic Flora

360903 Anemone richardsonii Hook.

2n= 14 (2x). - Siberia (N), Far East (N), Alaska, Canada. - Numerous reports.

Geography: Asian (NE) - amphi-Beringian - North American (N): SIB RFE ALA CAN GRL.

Notes: Anemonastrum has good support in the molecular studies, possibly together with a South American group ("Antucensis").

The Anemonastrum group or Anemone narcissiflora s. lat. is a complex of several races or species with well separated ranges from southwestern Europe throughout Eurasia to western North America. Like in several other groups with similar wide-spanning, disjunct patterns, treatments differ markedly. Russian practice has been to accept a series of species: A. biarmiensis, A. calva, and A. sibirica in northern Russia and Siberia (e.g., Petrovsky 1971a); A. calva, A. brevipedunculata, A. sachalinensis, A. sibirica, and A. villosissima in the Russian Far East (Starodubtzev 1995). Hultén (1968a) accepted four subspecies in northwestern North America: subspp. alaskana, interior, sibirica, and villosissima. Dutton et al. (1997) accepted three North American varieties based on De Candolle's treatment: var. monantha, var. villosissima, and (non-arctic) var. zephyra. These were mapped as allopatric or parapatric, differing in two or more assumedly independent characters. They included three of Hultén's four northwestern North American subspecies - alaskana, interior, sibirica - in var. monantha. Rebristaya and Yurtsev (PAF proposal, comment) accepted specific rank for all the taxa that reach the Arctic, except for subsp. interior which they proposed could be a subspecies of A. sibirica.

The alternatives discussed among the PAF collaborators are: (1) a series of species (Petrovsky 1971a; Starodubtzev 1995); (2) races, distinct where they do not overlap but intergrading where they do, e.g., subsp. sibirica and subsp. villosissima in western Alaska and subsp. sibirica and subsp. interior in north-central Alaska (Hultén and western European traditions, e.g., Hultén 1968a and Tutin and Chater 1993); or (3) a combination of species and races (Rebristaya's and Yurtsev's proposal). We have decided in favour of the third option due to different variation patterns in different regions. For some of the taxa, however, our knowledge about their distinctness leaves much to be desired.

In this solution, A. narcissiflora L., Sp. Pl.: 542 (1753) nom. (orth.) cons., from ["uarcissifolia"], is non-arctic. It was described from the Alps in Europe with lectotype (LINN): Herb. Linn. 710.31 (Dutton et al. 1995: 421). - Anemonastrum narcissiflorum (L.) Holub, Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 8: 165 (1973). - 2n = 14 (2x), several reports.