Panarctic Flora

430203 Atriplex sp. "Hudson Bay"

Geography: North American: CAN.

Notes: A native Atriplex occurs on the shores of Hudson and James bays. It has been difficult to assign to species. Scoggan's (1978c) treatment is not very useful. Bassett et al. (1983: 35-37) assigned it to A. subspicata (Nutt.) Rydb. by markings on a map but with no comment. Welsh (2003) commented on this plant and included it in A. glabriuscula var. glabriuscula and in addition reported a non-arctic eastern North American var. acadiensis (Tascher.) S.L. Welsh, Rhodora 102: 417 (2001). We consider both assignments erroneous.

Welsh (2003) commented on the Hudson Bay plants as "immature, and their identifications as [A. glabriuscula] are tentative at best". Numerous mature specimens are available from the Hudson and James bays (CAN, DAO). Atriplex glabriuscula is characterized vs. its relatives by non-stipitate and thick (coriaceous) bracteoles fused to the middle (see, e.g., Gustafsson 2001). The specimens from the Hudson and James bays all show the stipitate, thin and non-fused bracteoles characteristic of A. longipes. The most developed of the Greenland plants also have thin, stipitate bracteoles, not at all conforming to those of A. glabriuscula. We therefore do not accept the reports of A. glabriuscula from the arctic parts of Canada (Scoggan 1978c; Welsh 2003: Korobkov PAF proposal) or from southern Greenland. We assign the Greenland plants, without much doubt, to A. longipes subsp. praecox. The Hudson and James bay plant differs in some vegetative features. From a European viewpoint, it belongs within or close to A. longipes but does not conform closely with any of the two described races (subsp. longipes and subsp. praecox). We therefore enter it as an Atriplex sp. until further studied.