630620b Oxytropis arctica var. barnebyana S.L. Welsh
Distribution
Western Alaska: Rare
Southern Arcti Tundra: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Rare
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Rare
- S.L. Welsh, Great Basin Naturalist 28: 152 (1968). Holotype (BRY): Alaska, Kotzebue, 09. July 1966, leg. S.L. Welsh 5729. - Oxytropis sordida subsp. barnebyana (S.L. Welsh) Jurtz., Fl. Arct. URSS 9, 2: 109 (1986).
2n=
48 (6x). - Alaska (W). - Murray and Kelso (1997).
Geography: American Beringian: ALA.
Notes: Murray and Elven: Variety barnebyana was described to encompass the white-flowered western Alaskan plants of Oxytropis arctica. Yurtsev (1986, PAF proposal) treated it as a northwestern North American extension of the otherwise Eurasian O. sordida. We contest that view. The white-flowered plants connect very closely in molecular markers to red/blue-flowered O. arctica both in western and northeastern Alaska (Jorgensen et al. 2003). The connections are closer between white and red/blue-flowered plants within each of these regions than between the respective flower colour types between the regions. The morphology is similar except for the flower colour. It is therefore problematic to retain var. barnebyana as a separate, white-flowered race. However, if the western Alaskan plants are considered as a single taxon irrespective of flower colour, the name "barnebyana" is the relevant one this taxon (at ranks of variety or subspecies) and we apply it as such. In our opinion, however, this taxon perhaps rather deserves rank as species. We therefore refrain from recombining "barnebyana" as a subspecies of O. arctica.
Higher Taxa
- Oxytropis arctica [630620,species]