Panarctic Flora

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670209 Smelowskia jacutica (Botsch. & Karav.) Al-Shehbaz & Warwick

Distribution

Kharaulakh: Frequent
Southern Arcti Tundra: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Frequent
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Frequent

2n= (1) 12 (2x). - Far East (Magadan area). - Yurtsev and Zhukova (1972).
(2) 36 (6x). - Siberia (N). - Yurtsev and Zhukova (1982, three counts).

Geography: Asian (NE): SIB.

Notes: Yurtsev: Hedinia is a small genus closely related to Smelowskia. It includes, besides the West Chukotkan species below, three central Asian ones: H. tibetica Ostenf., H. altaica Pobed., and H. mongolica (Kom.) Velichkin. Hedinia czukotica shares the main differential characters of the central Asian Hedinias in comparison with the genus Smelowskia, e.g., growth form (monocarpic biennial with rosette leaf petioles not persistent) and the structure of siliculas. An attempt to separate the Chukotkan species from the central Asian ones as a monotypic genus, Hediniopsis (Botschantzev and Petrovsky 1986), was not supported by the data from further studies (Yurtsev et al. 1987). At the same time, one cannot accept the viewpoint of Berkutenko who treated all the Hedinia taxa (including H. czukotica) as synonyms of H. tibetica.

Elven: Warwick et al. (2003a) found Hedinia to nest in the periphery of the Smelowskia clade but did not make a formal transfer of it to Smelowskia. Al-Shehbaz and Warwick (2006b) recombined the Hedinia species as Smelowskias (see their arguments) but we do not know whether this implies an evaluation of them as several worthwhile species.

Higher Taxa