Panarctic Flora

370122-23 The Papaver nudicaule aggregate P. nudicaule, P. sp. "Khatanga"

Geography: Asian (N/C) & amphi-Beringian.

Notes: Samples from nine populations of the Papaver nudicaule aggregate, and its assumed close relatives in the non-arctic P. croceum and P. rubro-aurantiacum aggregates, were included in the molecular investigations. The samples were collected in southern Siberia (the Altai region), southeastern Siberia (the Chita region), northern Siberia (the eastern Taimyr Region), and Alaska. Together they constituted an unresolved cluster in the analyses together with the better resolved P. lenaense and P. pulvinatum (Solstad 2009). Each of the three aggregates are polymorphic and seem, from our study of Siberian material, to include two or more morphologically definable species. At the same time they have a series of characters in common separating them from the other Asian, North American and European species and aggregates.

Papaver nudicaule s. lat. is mainly Asian. Many authors have accepted one broad species with several races (e.g., Rändel 1974; Tolmachev 1975a; Bezdeleva 1987; Kiger and Murray 1997; Petrovsky 1999). Peschkova (1994a) rather accepted a large aggregate with 12 species in Siberia alone. The variation is impressive. We (Solstad and Elven) have found the many Siberian species accepted by Peschkova (1994a) to be recognizable by morphology but their rank is debatable. Two northern entities have been assigned here as races - subsp. insulare on Wrangel Island and subsp. americanum in Alaska and the Yukon Territory - whereas Peschkova treated all the Siberian entities as species. We do not find this solution acceptable. The two northern subspecies differ more from P. nudicaule s. str. than do the numerous species of Peschkova among themselves. There is, however, no alternatives available within the published nomenclature.