862203 Artemisia norvegica Fr.
- Fr., Novit. Fl. Svec. 4: 56 (1817). Described from "E rupibus Dovrefjäll", probably Mt. Knutshø in Oppdal, Sør-Trøndelag (Norway).
2n=
18 (2x). - Europe (Norway, Scotland). - At least four reports for var. norvegica and var. scotica.
Geography: European (NW) & European (NE).
Notes: Korobkov, Murray, and Elven: We agree with Hultén's opinion concerning Artemisia norvegica vs. A. arctica (Hultén 1968b: 138): "It [A. arctica] is fairly distinct from that species [A. norvegica] although closely related to it. They are better regarded as distinct species. The variations do not overlap". Artemisia norvegica is European with a range distant from those of the other species. It is strongly disjunct with one locality group in Scotland 700 km from the nearest Norwegian one (across the North Sea), three separate groups in southern and central Norway along a distance of nearly 600 km, and one in the northern Urals, more than 2400 km from the nearest Norwegian one. The distinctness from A. arctica (and also from A. subarctica, ca. 2400 km east of A. norvegica in the Urals) is therefore not very surprising.
Elven: Also the plants of A. norvegica differ among the Scottish, Norwegian, and Russian locality groups but only the Ural plant reaches the Arctic. The differences merit some recognition. They have been treated as varieties, respectivelly, var. scotica, var. norvegica, and var. uralensis (see Hultén 1954). The only difference between this group and other groups treated as subspecies is that the part ranges of A. norvegica are small.