Panarctic Flora

6416 Alchemilla L.

• L., Sp. Pl.: 123 (1753).
• Excluded: Alchemilla obtusa (see A. samuelssonii), A. oxyodonta (see A. norvegica), A. transpolaris, A. vulgaris (see A. acutiloba).

Notes: Alchemilla is a large, predominantly European and western Siberian genus with a few species reaching west of the Atlantic (all these amphi-Atlantic). The northern species are probably uniformly agamospermous. The species that reach the Arctic belong to three groups: A. alpina in series Saxatiles Buser, A. faeroeënsis formally in series Heliodrosium Rothm. but perhaps a hybrid species between series Saxatiles and series Alchemilla, and all the others in series Alchemilla (series Vulgares Buser).

There are three options for taxonomic treatment of the many agamospecies in series Alchemilla: (1) Some authors, e.g., the Löves, follow a tradition from Murbeck and consider them all subspecies of a few species, for the major parts A. vulgaris. A similar approach has been applied by some students of, e.g., the Ranunculus auricomus group but it is not currently approved (see Ericsson 2001). It weakens the meaning of races and would result in several hundreds of races (subspecies) of A. vulgaris in Europe and similarly in the other series of Alchemilla. It makes the nomenclature more complicated without any improvement in understanding or reference. (2) The majority of authors consider at least the northern species of Alchemilla to be fairly distinct (as agamospecies go). It is usually not much more difficult to identify, characterize, and delimit species here than in many sexual groups. The majority of the species that reach the Arctic have consistent and significant geographical ranges. There is no sign of polytopic origins of northern Alchemilla, as different from Potentilla. The species can be handled taxonomically as sexuals, more or less. This is the approach of Tikhomirov (PAF proposal), Kurtto et al. (2007), and accepted for the Checklist. (3) We could fully enter only broader groups and just list agamospecies as we have done in Taraxacum and Hieracium and as done in Alchemilla for Flora Europaea by Walters (1968). The species of series Alchemilla are, however, often more difficult to assign into such informal broader groups than to describe separately.

Kristinsson (2008) did not map separately the species of Alchemilla series Alchemilla in Iceland. Stefan Ericsson (unpubl.) has revised the material for Flora Nordica and the account below is based on these revisions (AMNH, ICEL) and on Hultén and Fries (1986).

The chromosome number information is conflicting and may depend on what is considered a countable chromosome in this genus. Earlier works usually reported many species to be octoploids with 2n = 64 (e.g., Strasburger 1904; Löve and Löve 1956b), among our microspecies A. glacialis Ósk. (Iceland, now included in A. glomerulans), A. glomerulans, A. murbeckiana, A. oxyodonta (Iceland, but see below), A. vulgaris, A. wichurae, and A. alpina. None of these reports were included by Löve and Löve (1975a) who rather reported the same species and others to be dodecaploids with 2n = 96 and with a varying number of accessories. Other authors from the 1950s onwards have rather reported varying numbers, usually in the range ca. 100-ca. 224.

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  Alchemilla xanthochlora ROTHM.; Family Rosaceae
  Source: Teacoolish at Wikispecies