Panarctic Flora

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421216 Silene involucrata (Cham. & Schltdl.) Bocquet

Distribution

Northern Fennoscandia: Rare
Kanin - Pechora: Frequent
Svalbard - Franz Joseph Land: Scattered
Polar Ural - Novaya Zemlya: Frequent
Yamal - Gydan: Scattered
Taimyr - Severnaya Zemlya: Frequent
Anabar - Onenyo: Scattered
Kharaulakh: Frequent
Yana - Kolyma: Rare
West Chukotka: Frequent
Wrangel Island: Rare
South Chukotka: Presence uncertain
East Chukotka: Scattered
Western Alaska: Scattered
Northern Alaska - Yukon: Frequent
Central Canada: Frequent
Hudson Bay - Labrador: Frequent
Ellesmere Island: Scattered
Western Greenland: Frequent
Eastern Greenland: Frequent
Polar desert: Rare
Northern arctic Tundra: Frequent
Mid Arctic Tundra: Frequent
Southern Arcti Tundra: Frequent
Shrub Tundra: Frequent
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Frequent

2n= 48 (4x). - The attempted assignment of reports on subspecies below is 'probabilistic' and should be checked against vouchers before acceptance.

Geography: Circumboreal-polar.

Notes: Elven, Murray, and Petrovsky: The type material of Lychnis apetala var. involucrata was collected between Irkutsk and Okhotsk in Siberia, not in Kamtchatka. Redowsky died before he reached Kamtchatka.

The name for this species in Silene is S. involucrata as applied by Bocquet (1967). Agrostemma involucratum (Cham. & Schltdl.) G. Don 1831 predates the other early combinations with "furcata" 1840, "affinis" 1842, "angustiflora" 1845, and "vahlii" 1845.

Tzvelev (2000b) accepted the large-seeded plants as three species: the circumpolar high-arctic Gastrolychnis furcata, the northeastern European and northwestern Siberian low-arctic and boreal G. affinis, and the Siberian to North American low-arctic and boreal G. pauciflora. Tzvelev stated that his G. pauciflora in some ways is transitional between his G. affinis and G. furcata and may be of hybrid origin. It occurs, however, mainly east of the known range of G. affinis and south of that of G. furcata, and we prefer to regard it not hybridogeneous. We agree with Tzvelev's division but there are nomenclatural problems when the plants are considered in Silene and as races of one species rather than as three species. We consider them subspecies as they are major parapatric races and as, in our opinion, two of them to some degree overlap morphologically.

Morton (2005c) accepted one species with two subspecies for North America. The application of names has been and is confused as seen from comments to each subspecies. The main difference is that Morton's subsp. involucrata corresponds to our subsp. furcata and to Tzvelev's Gastrolychnis furcata, whereas Morton's subsp. tenella corresponds to our subsp. involucrata and to Tzvelev's Gastrolychnis pauciflora. This is due to different interpretations of the (Eurasian) types behind the names "involucrata" and "tenella", not to different opinions on the taxa.

Higher Taxa