410501 Aconogonon alaskanum (Wight ex Hultén) Soják
- Soják, Preslia 46: 150 (1974). - Polygonum alaskanum Wight ex Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 40, 1: 610 (1944). Based on Polygonum alpinum var. lapathifolium Cham. & Schltdl., Linnaea 3: 38 (1828). Neotype (K): Alaska: "Kotzebue's Sound", leg. Chamisso and Beechey (Hong 1991: 333). - Aconogonon hultenianum var. lapathifolium (Cham. & Schltdl.) Hong, Rhodora 93: 333 (1991). - Polygonum alpinum taxon alaskanum Small, Mem. Dept. Bot. Columbia Coll. 1: 33 (1895) nom. illeg..
Geography: Amphi-Beringian.
Notes: Elven and Murray: This species was first described as Polygonum alpinum var. lapathifolium Cham. & Schltdl. Small (1895) coined the unranked name Polygonum [alpinum taxon] alaskanum because the name "lapathifolium" was inapplicable for a species in Polygonum due to the previous P. lapathifolium L. 1753. As Small published the new name as an alleged synonym and also without rank, it is illegitimate (Kartesz and Gandhi 1990a: 424). Hong (1991) therefore accepted the name Aconogonon hultenianum for this species based on a morphologically different type. However, Chambers (1992) concluded that Hultén's (1944) publication of Polygonum alaskanum is legitimate and based on the description and type of Chamisso and Schlechtendal. For some reason Hinds and Freeman (2005b) still considered Small to be author of the epithet "alaskanum".
There is a small but geographically structured variation within this amphi-Beringian species. Plants from East Chukotka and western Alaska have pubescent leaves, retrorse hairs on the stems, and are generally more small-grown and more confined to natural site types than are the plants of interior Alaska and the Yukon Territory. These latter plants are subglabrous to glabrous and often adventive. Possible intermediates (ALA; fewer than five seen) seem to be pollen and fruit fertile. The Bering Straits plant of Chamisso and Schlechtendal, i.e., the plant behind Hultén's Polygonum alaskanum, is pubescent. Yurtsev (1974) named the subglabrous interior Alaskan plant Polygonum alaskanum subsp. hultenianum, later raised by Tzvelev to rank of species as Aconogonon hultenianum. This is the same plant as Polygonum alaskanum var. glabrescens Hultén but based on a different type. The two taxa have been variously accepted as species (Tzvelev 1987f; Yurtsev in comment), subspecies (Yurtsev 1974), varieties (Hong 1991; Hinds and Freeman 2005b), or without rank. We consider the differences between them small, almost only in pubescence. The overlapping ranges and the suggestions of good fertility in transitional plants suggest variety as an appropriate rank. Yurtsev disagreed.
Higher Taxa
- Aconogonon [4105,genus]