Panarctic Flora

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800407 Plantago maritima L.

Distribution

Northern Iceland: Frequent
Northern Fennoscandia: Frequent
Kanin - Pechora: Frequent
Polar Ural - Novaya Zemlya: Rare
Western Alaska: Present only in the Borderline Arctic
Central Canada: Rare
Hudson Bay - Labrador: Frequent
Western Greenland: Frequent
Eastern Greenland: Rare
Mid Arctic Tundra: Rare
Southern Arcti Tundra: Frequent
Shrub Tundra: Frequent
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Frequent

2n= 12 (2x). - Europe, Canada, Greenland. - Numerous reports, at least three from Greenland.

Geography: Circumboreal-polar & South American (S): ICE NOR RUS (ALA) CAN GRL.

Notes: The variation among the northern plants of Plantago maritima is not resolved and we refrain from entering any arctic race(s). The species reaches the Arctic in three regions: in northern Europe from Iceland east to northeastern European Russia, in northeastern and northern North America including Greenland and Hudson Bay and with scattered occurrences west to the Mackenzie River, and in western Alaska as a northern extension of a Pacific American range. Several races have been proposed.

The type race - subsp. maritima - is a common western European coastal plant with elongating spikes with lanceolate and acute bracts and with ovate capsules each with 2-3 seeds. It is probably non-arctic but approaches in northern Norway and is reported from Iceland by implication by Löve and Löve (1975a).

The arctic plants mostly have much shorter spikes with broader bracts, more rounded capsules, and at least the Greenland ones with only 3-4 seeds per capsule. Two taxa have been named in the arctic North Atlantic regions. The name P. borealis Lange is based on Greenland plants. Its priority name at subspecies level is subsp. borealis (Lange) A. Blytt & O.C. Dahl as there is a clear reference to Lange's basionym in the combination of Blytt and O.C. Dahl and it is marked as a subspecies in the way these authors customarily did (with an '*'). The plants of the Russian Murman area have been described as subsp. subpolaris and to be different from subsp. borealis. The northern European (subpolaris) plants resemble the Greenland ones (borealis) in general appearance but Devold and Scholander (1933) compared plants from Greenland and northern Norway and found consistent differences in shape of capsule and size of seeds (with almost no overlap). This old investigation should be followed up on a larger material as it suggests that the northern plants might be different adaptations (from southern stocks) in North America-Greenland and in Europe.

Sergienko (1977) stated the name P. schrenkii to have priority before P. borealis. He also suggested that P. subpolaris is closer to subsp. maritima and assumed it to be a hybrid between P. maritima s. str. and P. schrenkii.

The western North American plants look different from the Atlantic ones but no morphological or molecular comparison has been undertaken and no subspecific name is readily available.

Plantago maritima is bipolar with a huge gap between the northern and southern parts of its range. Plantago juncoides [P. maritima L. subsp. juncoides (Lam.) Hultén] was described from the Magellan Straits in southernmost South America. This name has often been applied to northern plants (e.g., as P. maritima subsp. juncoides or as P. juncoides var. glauca). An identity at level of subspecies between the plants in the two polar areas (with subsp. maritima in between) should be documented before the name subsp. juncoides is applied in the north. We restrict the name subsp. juncoides to the South American plants.

Higher Taxa