500118 Micranthes rufopilosa (Hultén)
Distribution
Western Alaska: Rare
Northern Alaska - Yukon: Rare
Southern Arcti Tundra: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Scattered
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Frequent
- Saxifraga nivalis var. rufopilosa Hultén, Ark. Bot., n. s., 7, 1: 69 (1968). Holotype (S): Alaska: Steese Highway, mountain west of Mastodon Dome, 25-26. July 1964, leg. E. Hultén. - Saxifraga rufopilosa (Hultén) A.E. Porsild, Naturaliste Canad., Bot. 4: 41 (1975).
Geography: Cordilleran (N): ALA CAN.
Notes: Murray: Plants with the rusty leaf hairs combined with more rhombic leaves and the open inflorescence of Micranthes rufopilosa are more common than M. nivalis and M. tenuis in the mountains of Alaska and reach the Arctic both in the west and in the north. Cody (1996) has mapped arctic localities well disjunct of its main range in Yukon, whereas he did not assign any Yukon plants to M. tenuis.
Brouillet and Elvander (2009a), in their discussion of M. gaspensis (Fernald) Small, refer to F1 hybrids between M. nivalis and M. tenuis (with 2n = 40) in Yukon (Krause and Beamish 1973, see note to M. nivalis below), however, this count cannot be verified as the voucher has not been found (B. Bennett in comment). Whereas hybridization between M. nivalis and M. tenuis may be the correct explanation for the occurrence of M. gaspensis, it is pure speculation to apply this origin also to the Alaska-Yukon plants where M. tenuis in a strict meaning is not known to occur.
Healy and Gillespie (2004) have shown how M. nivalis and M. tenuis from arctic Canada differ in both morphology and cpDNA. They did note that the few montane plants from Alaska and the Yukon Territory they treated as M. tenuis differed from the arctic specimens by quantitative characters and appeared to be intermediate between M. nivalis and M. tenuis. These results probably pertain to M. rufopilosa.
Higher Taxa
- Micranthes [5001,genus]