Panarctic Flora

440101-02 The Claytonia tuberosa aggregate C. multiscapa, C. tuberosa

Geography: Asian (NE) - amphi-Beringian & Cordilleran.

Notes: Yurtsev: Claytonia czukczorum and C. tuberosa should be treated as two varieties. There is a gradual transition between C. tuberosa s. str. and C. czukczorum connected with the depth of corms and presence or absence of moss carpet: rosette leaves penetrate the moss cover separately each sometimes; they have long etiolated petioles and are usually not collected.

Murray and Elven: Also Hultén (1968b) stated that only a few spurious characters distinguish these two plants and treated them as varieties. He reported plants with the characters of var. czukczorum from the Alaskan side (Little Diomede Island, Cape Prince of Wales). We have inspected a collection from Little Diomede Island (ALA) and find this plant well different from the otherwise widespread C. tuberosa s. str. (also in Little Diomede and at Cape Prince of Wales) in its many stems and leaves and also in smaller flowers.

Neither the Russians nor Hultén have compared with more southern North American plants. Miller (2003 and in S) and Miller and Chambers (2006) assigned var. czukczorum to the Cordilleran C. multiscapa rather than to C. tuberosa. On the American side, Miller and Chambers (2006) reported it from Little Diomede, Cape Prince of Wales, Anvil Mountain on the Seward Peninsula, and also from non-arctic parts of the Richardson and Ogilvie mountains in the Yukon Territory. We find the plants different enough to follow the proposal of Miller and Chambers even if the diagnostic characters are few. We have, however, only seen vouchers supporting presence along the Bering coasts, not in the interior Richardson or Ogilvie mountains.