580211b Salix rotundifolia var. dodgeana (Rydb.) E. Murray
Distribution
East Chukotka: Presence uncertain
Western Alaska: Rare
Northern Alaska - Yukon: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Rare
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Scattered
- E. Murray, Kalmia 13: 30 (1983). - Salix dodgeana Rydb., Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 1: 277 (1899). Type: U.S.A.: Wyoming, Yellowstone Park, Electric Peak, 18. Aug. 1897, leg. Rydberg and Bessey. - Salix rotundifolia subsp. dodgeana (Rydb.) Argus, Canad. J. Bot. 47: 795 (1969).
Geography: Amphi-Beringian? - Cordilleran: RFE? ALA CAN.
Notes: Argus, Murray, Yurtsev, and Elven: Hultén (1968b) considered Salix dodgeana a Cordilleran vicariant of the amphi-Beringian S. phlebophylla, distinguished by "very sparsely flowered catkins and glabrous capsules like S. rotundifolia", i.e., with the diagnostic characters of S. rotundifolia rather than S. phlebophylla. Hultén (1968a) mapped it only from the eastern (non-arctic) Mackenzie Mountains. Skvortsov (PAF proposal) reported it from the Arctic in East Chukotka and possibly in western and northern Alaska and in the Yukon Territory. Argus (2007) mapped it from the Seward Peninsula, northeastern and eastern Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and from the bordering parts of the Northwest Territories in the Mackenzie and Richardson mountains. He also mapped it with a large gap (across the areas of the Pleistocene Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets) to the small part areas in the Rockies in Montana and Wyoming from where this race was described.
Argus (1973) found var. dodgeana to be separable from var. rotundifolia only on the basis of overlapping, quantitative characters. He commented that it is best to simply mention this Cordilleran plant - possibly an ecotype - as an interesting variation, rather than to accord it formal nomenclatural rank. Yurtsev commented that if the main range of var. dodgeana lies in Cordilleras, it makes sense to keep it as a species. Elven: His logic here escapes me. He also stated that both the populations from the easternmost Chukchi Peninsula, besides smaller size of leaves and catkins, differ from true S. rotundifolia in their narrower, somewhat cuneate blades of leaves and that they occupy the driest sites. Murray and Elven surveyed material from Alaska and the Yukon Territory (ALA) and were not convinced that there is a separable race "dodgeana" in these regions. Argus (2007) was more ready to accept a race (variety), and this became the solution for the Flora of North America (Argus 2010). Whether it reaches East Chukotka is not known. We would perhaps prefer to accept these two parapatric races as subspecies rather than as varieties.
Higher Taxa
- Salix rotundifolia [580211,species]