760402 Gentianopsis richardsonii (A.E. Porsild)
Distribution
Western Alaska: Rare
Central Canada: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Rare
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Rare
- Gentiana richardsonii A.E. Porsild, Bull. Natl. Mus. Canada 121: 274 (1951). Holotype (DAO): Canada: the Northwest Territories, "Arctic Coast east of the Mackenzie Delta, about latitude 70N and 13120'W, on a dry, sandy slope 8 miles from the coast", 01.-03. Aug. 1927, leg. A.E. Porsild and R.T. Porsild 2653.
Geography: American Beringian: ALA CAN.
Notes: Plants similar to Gentianopsis detonsa occur in a few seashore localities at Kotzebue Sound in western Alaska and between the Mackenzie River Delta and Liverpool Bay in northwestern Canada (Porsild 1951). Even if the arctic seashores are under-investigated, this spectacular plant should have been found much more often if it has a more continuous range. The plants from northwestern North America differ in a few characters and are strongly disjunct geographically from the North Atlantic plants. They have been described as Gentiana richardsonii and might deserve rank as a species or perhaps better a subspecies. As far as we know, the name richardsonii has not yet been recombined in Gentianopsis.
Higher Taxa
- Gentianopsis [7604,genus]