Panarctic Flora

670203 Smelowskia media (W.H. Drury & Rollins) Velichkin

• Velichkin, Bot. Zhurn. 64: 167 (1979). - Smelowskia calycina var. media W.H. Drury & Rollins, Rhodora 54: 100 (1952). Holotype (MIN): Alaska: the North Slope, Lake Schrader, 6925'N, 14500'W, 10. July 1948, leg. L.A. Spetzman 653.

2n= 12 (2x). - Alaska, Canada (NW). - Dawe and Murray (1981c, two counts); Mulligan (2002, two counts).

Geography: American Beringian: ALA CAN.

Notes: Yurtsev: Smelowskia media may provide a link between the Cordilleran S. americana and the Beringian S. porsildii group. Leaves are shallowly pinnate to dentate vs. deeply pinnate in S. americana and in the Asian S. calycina and S. bifurcata. Smelowskia media needs additional study. It is not without reason that Hultén (1968a, 1968b) referred "var. media" to subsp. calycina in contrast with the other Beringian taxa of Smelowskia.

Murray and Elven: Smelowskia media is distinctly different from S. porsildii in morphology. It may be more closely related to the American S. americana and/or the Asian S. calycina and S. bifurcata. These may be an aggregate where S. media is the northernmost representative, but they are all recognizable in morphology and microsatellites (Carlsen et al. 2010). They are all diploids or predominantly so but see Mulligan's comment concerning [S. americana] and may be allopatric taxa with their origin in vicariance, i.e., Pleistocene separation in the southern Cordilleras (S. americana), eastern Beringia (S. media), and northeastern and central Asia (S. alba, S. bifurcata, and S. calycina). In the molecular data (Carlsen et al. 2010), this hypothesis has support where S. media constitutes a cluster besides the clusters of S. americana and the Asian species but not with any obvious close relation to the generally more high-ploid, central Beringian S. porsildii. Just because S. media is geographically allied with the other Alaskan and Chukotkan taxa does not mean that it has a similar phyletic history.