Panarctic Flora

370108 Papaver alaskanum Hultén

• Hultén, Fl. Aleut. Isl. 190 (1937). Holotype (S!): Alaska: the Aleutian Islands, Unalaska, 02. Aug. 1932, leg. E. Hultén 7197. - Papaver radicatum subsp. alaskanum (Hultén) J.P. Anderson, Fl. Alaska: 244 (1959). - Papaver microcarpum subsp. alaskanum (Hultén) Tolm., Fl. Arct. URSS 7: 30 (1975).
• Papaver alaskanum var. latilobum Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 41, 1: 800 (1945). Lectotype (S!): Alaska: the Aleutian Islands, Umnak Island, Nikolski, 17. June 1932, leg. E. Hultén 5724.

2n= (1) 41-42 (ca. 6x). - Alaska (the Aleutian Islands: Kiska Island). - Solstad (2009). Hexaploid in FCM, Solstad (2009, two plants from one locality).
(2) 52-54 (ca. 8x). - Alaska (the Alaska Peninsula: Becharof Lake). - Solstad (2009). Octoploid in FCM, Solstad (2009, four plants from one locality).

Geography: American Beringian: ALA.

Notes: We are not sure what Papaver alaskanum is or should be, and neither were probably Hultén (1937, 1945a, 1968a) nor Kiger and Murray (1997, as P. radicatum subsp. alaskanum). Hultén (1937), when publishing the name P. alaskanum, specified as type a plant collected by himself in Unalaska in 1932 but as for a diagnosis he referred to the description of P. "nudicaule" as reported from Unalaska by Chamisso and Schlechtendal (1826). Hultén (1937) compared his plant with P. microcarpum and stated that it "differs ... in its lemon-yellow petals without basal spot, in more numerous stamens, and in the fact that the central projection of the stigmas is missing (or practically missing). The caudex is more densely covered with the dilatate bases of the previous year's petioles." Hultén's (1945a) P. alaskanum var. latilobum from Umnak Island in the Aleutian Islands was described as differing in leaf lobe shape and size and flower size and corresponds closely to the plant from Kiska Island included in the AFLP study. The statement that P. alaskanum has more numerous stamens than P. microcarpum is strange as P. microcarpum is in the top range (50-70 stamens) in sect. Meconella (see Solstad 2009) whereas the stamen number in Hultén's type specimen is in the range 16-24. Hultén may have compared with another plant than De Candolle's P. microcarpum.

The plants we have studied in AFLP patterns and in ploidy level estimates and assigned to P. alaskanum are characterized by unusually few stamens (8 or 16, very rarely 4, in the Aleutian Islands, ca. 24 in Alaska Peninsula). Our Aleutian (Kiska Island) population corresponds to Hultén's var. latilobum, reported also by Hultén (1945a, 1960) from Kiska, whereas the Alaska Peninsula (Becharof Lake) population was unknown at Hultén's time and differ in, e.g., being very small-flowered with brick-red petals with a yellow basal spot. Our brick-red flowered plant may be outside Hultén's concept. However, our two populations are closely joined in the analyses of AFLP markers, even if at different ploidy levels, and are close related.

Papaver alaskanum or the P. alaskanum complex may be restricted to southwestern and western (coastal) Alaska (Hultén 1937, 1945a, 1960, 1968a; Kiger and Murray 1997; in addition plants from Seward Peninsula in ALA with 16 stamens, ALA). In our circumscription it is very (perhaps too) polymorphic in the majority of its features. Characters keeping it together are dense tussocks with a compact cover of pale brownish, tough marcescent sheaths, leaves often glaucous and sometimes finely dissected, scapes ascending, and capsules with dark trichomes with thickened bases. However, it shares these features with many other species. Capsule shape varies from subglobular to obovoid or ellipsoid. Petal colour varies from white and yellow to brick red, and flower size from unusually small to moderately large. At least two ploidy levels are present. It is therefore probable that P. alaskanum as currently considered will fall apart into two or more species when further studied.