Panarctic Flora

672108 Draba oxycarpa Sommerf.

• Sommerf., Mag. Naturvidensk. 11: 241 (1833). Type (O): Norway: Svalbard, "Spitzbergen S_dcap", 1827, leg. B.M. Keilhau. See notes.
• Draba gredinii E. Ekman, Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 27: 102 (1933). Described from Greenland. Ten syntypes (C, O S) cited.
• Draba alpina sensu Á. Löve & D. Löve (1975a), non L. (1753).

2n= 64 (8x). - Europe (Norway, Svalbard), Greenland. - Several reports, mainly for D. alpina and D. gredinii.

Geography: Amphi-Atlantic: ICE NOR RUS GRL.

Notes: Draba oxycarpa was described from Svalbard and the Norwegian mainland, based on collections by B.M. Keilhau (Sommerfelt 1833). The name D. oxycarpa Sommerf. 1833 predates D. oxycarpa Boiss. 1849 (from western Asia), is validly published, and can be substatiated by a type. The specimen cited above is the only original material identified in the Oslo herbarium where Keilhau's specimens are deposited. It shows the diagnostic fruit characters and was identified as D. oxycarpa by S. Bretten and A.A. Frisvoll in 1981. It is suitable as lectotype. The type needs, however, a closer inspection not yet undertaken. If confirmed, D. oxycarpa will be the earliest name for the arctic, octoploid species later described by Ekman (1933) as D. gredinii.

This octoploid species superficially resembles D. alpina s. str. but is distinct in several characters (e.g., petal and sepal shape and colour, flower shape, infrutescence structure, fruit shape and pubescence, and seed size and colour) and in molecular markers. It represents a different evolutionary lineage (Brochmann et al. 1992). It is documented from the North Atlantic regions: eastern Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, Scandinavia, Novaya Zemlya, and Polar Ural (specimen from there seen in MHA in 2003). A revision in 2003 of material from the Canadian Arctic (CAN, DAO) revealed no similar plants. Internal note: Check again the identity of the Icelandig plant.

Löve and Löve (1975a) assigned the name "D. alpina L. s. str." to the octoploid level (2n = 64). The majority of reports of octoploids referred by the Löves belong to D. oxycarpa. A report of an octoploid from Kolguev in northeastern European Russia (Sokolovskaya and Strelkova 1960) should be checked if any voucher is available. It might well belong to D. oxycarpa and the region Kanin-Pechora should then be added (given with a question mark in the distribution table). A report of an octoploid by Löve and Löve (1982a) from Churchill on Hudson Bay is more enigmatic. The only yellow-flowered species known to occur in that area is the plant tentatively assigned to D. glacialis (see above) and there is probably no voucher to check. A series of reports of northeastern Asian octoploids belong to a Beringian taxon similar to D. oxycarpa in gross morphology and entered below as D. "pseudo-oxycarpa".