Panarctic Flora

630512 Astragalus lepagei Hultén

• Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 46, 1: 1761 (1950). Holotype (S G-771): Alaska: the Colville River, Umiat, sand bars, 29. July 1948, leg. Lepage. - Astragalus australis var. lepagei (Hultén) S.L. Welsh, Great Basin Natural. 58: 47 (1998).
• ?Atelophragma lineare Rydb., Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 40: 50 (1913). Holotype (NY): the Yukon Territory: Foot of Lake Lebarge, 1899, leg. J.B. Tarleton 34b. - ?Astragalus linearis (Rydb.) A.E. Porsild, Rhodora 41: 250 (1939), non Edgew. ex Aitch., Cat. Pl. Punjab Sindh: 43 (1869).
• ?Astragalus aboriginorum var. muriei Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 43, 1: 1080 (1947). Holotype (S): Alaska: Porcupine River, 45 miles from the mouth, 12. June 1926, leg. O.J. Murie 2162. - ?Astragalus australis var. muriei (Hultén) S.L. Welsh, Great Basin Naturalist 58: 47 (1998).

2n= (1) 16 (2x). - Far East (N), Alaska. - At least three reports, for A. tugarinovii (Russian) and A. aboriginorum (American).
(2) 32 (4x). - Alaska. - Hedberg (1967, for A. lepagei).
Some more reports of diploids and tetraploids from East Chukotka, entered above under A. tugarinovii, probably belong to this species.
Not included: A report of 3n = 32 for A. linearis from Manitoba (Löve and Löve 1982b), very far from the known range of A. lepagei. A report referred by Löve and Löve (1975a) as 2n = 48 (6x; Ledingham and Rever 1963) must be checked as to where it was made and what it was published as.

Geography: Amphi-Beringian: RFE ALA.

Notes: Yurtsev: Amphi-Beringian plants (East Chukotka, western and northern Alaska) with small flowers, minute leaflets, and longer petioles known as Astragalus linearis (Rydb.) A.E. Porsild [A. lepagei?], show a certain similarity with the North American boreal A. aboriginorum Richardson and need further examination.

Murray and Elven: Yurtsev commented that he collected A. tugarinovii twice in 1993 on the Seward Peninsula. We have inspected these plants (ALA) and they belong within our concept of A. lepagei.

A possible nomenclatural problem is that Hultén explicitly coined A. lepagei as a nomen novum for A. linearis (Rydb.) A.E. Porsild (i.e., Athelophragma lineare Rydb.) but specified a different type. We have to decide whether to consider these two names as homotypic or heterotypic, and in the latter case if referring to the same taxon.

Welsh (2007) accepted A. lepagei to be one of three northern varieties of A. australis and included three of the described Russian species in the synonymy of his var. lepagei: A. gorodkovii, A. tolmaczevii, and A. tugarinovii. Welsh entered A. linearis as a synonym under another of his varieties, var. muriei (Hultén) S.L. Welsh, and he also specified a type for Atelophragma lineare from the Yukon Territory (see above). We have not solved these possible inconsistencies.