810404 Euphrasia subarctica Raup
Distribution
Western Alaska: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Rare
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Frequent
- Raup, Rhodora 36: 87 (1934). Holotype (GH): Canada: Alberta, short distance E. of Sand Pt., north shore of Lake Athabasca, about 5857'N, 11042'W, 06. Sept. 1932, leg. H.M. Raup and E.C. Abbe 4633.
- Euphrasia disjuncta auct., non Fernald & Wiegand (1915).
Geography: North American (NW): ALA.
Notes: Hultén (1968a, 1968b) tentatively synonymized the western North American Euphrasia subarctica and the eastern E. disjuncta under the latter name. Euphrasia subarctica differs morphologically both from E. disjuncta and from another eastern species, E. hudsoniana. The shoots of E. subarctica are prolonged at anthesis with first flowers at high nodes, flowers unusually small and yellowish (white-lilac in E. disjuncta), and with a dominance in the pubescence of long, multicellular glandular hairs. The plants from the Northwest Territories are less glandular than those from farther west in the Yukon Territory and Alaska. The type is from the more eastern parts of its range but Raup (in comment to the description) identified the Fairbanks (Alaska) plants with E. subarctica. The assignment of E. subarctica and E. disjuncta to two series, respectivelly, Grandiflorae and Minutiflorae, seems inappropriate (and, besides, E. subarctica is among the least 'grandiflorous' of all Euphrasias).
Thomas Karlsson commented that the very small and yellowish flowers are shared with E. bottnica Kihlm. on the northern Baltic shores (non-arctic) and that this could be an European isolate of the same group as E. subarctica and E. disjuncta.
Higher Taxa
- Euphrasia [8104,genus]