Panarctic Flora

860809 Antennaria media Greene

• Greene, Pittonia 3: 286 (1898). Lectotype (US-310514): U.S.A.: California, Placer Co., mountains above Coldstream, 31. July 1892, leg. C.F. Sonne (Nelson 1901: 700).

2n= (1) 56 (8x). - North America. - At least four reports.
(2) 98 (14x). - North America. - Bayer and Stebbins (1987).
(3) 112 (16x). - North America. - Bayer and Stebbins (1987).
Not included: Bayer (1984) reported also 2n = 28 (4x) for this species but tetraploid counts were not accepted by Bayer (2006).

Geography: Amphi-Beringian (E) - North American.

Notes: Chmielewski (1997) regarded Antennaria media as a widely distributed and polymorphic species with three subspecies: the non-arctic western North American subsp. media, the widespread subsp. compacta (from Chukotka east to Greenland), and the Cordilleran subsp. fusca.

Bayer (2006) circumscribed A. media much more narrowly and regarded it as a highly polyploid derivative from the 2n = 28 and sexual southwestern U.S.A. A. pulchella Greene, mostly agamospermous but with sexuals at least in California and Oregon. He considered the species closely related to A. alpina (sensu Bayer), possibly with A. pulchella genes transferred to the A. alpina and A. parvifolia complexes through A. media. In Bayer's circumscription, A. media is absent from the Arctic and from northeastern Asia. Bayer included Chmielewski's subsp. compacta (A. compacta) in his collective A. alpina as a major part of the American material of this species, whereas Chmielewski's subsp. fusca (A. fusca) was included in A. rosea subsp. pulvinata.

The two treatments of A. media and putative relatives, by Chmielewski (1997) and Bayer (2006), then differ considerably. Comparison between the two approaches is made difficult by Bayer's (2006) absence of reference or comment to any of Chmielewski's treatments of the A. media and A. alpina groups (Chmielewski 1997, 1998). Until there is some consensus concerning the American parts of the A. alpina and A. media complexes, we follow Chmielewski's treatment of both complexes. With northwestern European experience with A. alpina (i.e. from the type region), we consider the major North American plant of Chmielewski's A. media group - subsp. compacta - to be rather different from A. alpina where Bayer assigns it.