Panarctic Flora

710401a Androsace chamaejasme subsp. andersonii (Hultén) Hultén

• Hultén, Fl. Alaska: 745 (1968). - Androsace chamaejasme var. andersonii Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 44, 1: 1281 (1948). Holotype (S!): Alaska: Kotzebue, 12. Aug. 1932, leg. J.P. Anderson.
• Androsace chamaejasme subsp. arctisibirica Korobkov, Fl. Arct. URSS 8: 181 (1980). Holotype (LE): Siberia: "Paeninsulae Taimyr pars occidentalis, in ripa occidentali adrupta lacus Aja-Turka", 12. July 1975, leg. M. Sokolova.
• Androsace chamaejasme subsp. lehmanniana auct., non (Spreng.) Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 44, 1: 1280 (1948).
• ?Androsace bungeana Schischk. & Bobrov, Fl. URSS 18: 231 (1952). Nomen novum for Androsace lehmanniana Hand.-Mazz., Notes R. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 15: 281 (1925-1927), non Spreng. (1817). Described from Mongolia.

2n= (1) 20 (2x). - Siberia (N, S), Far East (N), Alaska, Canada (NW, W). - Several reports.
(2) 30 (3x). - Far East (South Chukotka). - Zhukova (1980).

Geography: Asian (N/C) - amphi-Beringian - North American (NW): RUS SIB RFE ALA CAN.

Notes: The majority of authors have applied the name subsp. lehmanniana to the plants of Androsace chamaejasme s. lat. in northern Eurasia and North America (e.g., Hultén 1968a; Cody 1996; Kelso 2009a), an exception being Porsild & Cody (1980, after Porsild 1955) who applied the name var. arctica Knuth. Androsace lehmanniana Sprengel, Isis (Oken) 1: 1289, pl. 9 (1817), was described from "Oriente", almost certainly on a Lehmann collection from the Caucasus (the Caucasus is the only area where the plant occurs and which was part of "Oriente" at Sprengel's time, and Lehmann collected in the Caucasus). Kelso stated (in comment) that the type of A. lehmanniana was an undetermined collection deposited in B and probably destroyed during World War II. This means that the diagnosis and other parts of the protologue are the only elements that strictly can be used to identify the plant. The diagnosis is (Sprengel 1817): "Androsace lehmanniana foliis ovali-oblongis, hirsutis ciliatis, venosis integerrimis, umbella capitata pauciflora, limbi laciniis obtusis". A more extended description is given in the protologue. The characters are not enough to say categorically that the northern plants and the Caucasus ones belong within the same race. What is needed is to base A. lehmanniana on a neotype from the Caucasus and to compare this material (and Caucasian plants) with the northern plant. Our contention is that the current application of the name subsp. lehmanniana for the northern plants is based on custom rather than facts. We therefore prefer to apply a name certainly based on the northern plants. Two are available: subsp. arctisibirica Korobkov 1980 and subsp. andersonii Hultén 1968.

Considering the name "lehmanniana" inappropriate in the north, Korobkov (1980) described subsp. arctisibirica Korobkov from Taimyr and considered this race to be the only one from Vaigach and Polar Ural eastwards across northern Asia and northwestern North America to Banks and Victoria islands, the Mackenzie, and the Rocky Mountains.

Hultén (1968a) accepted a local, western Alaskan plant as subsp. andersonii (Hultén) Hultén, described from Kotzebue. However, neither Kelso nor Elven and Murray are ready to accept Hultén's subsp. andersonii as more than a minor local variant (type in S and plants later collected in Kotzebue inspected). Hultén's name subsp. andersonii has priority before subsp. arctisibirica as long as we do not accept the plant behind it as belonging to a different race. We have found no way to avoid the name subsp. andersonii as long as we do not accept the name subsp. lehmanniana for the northern plants.