Panarctic Flora

862203-06 The Artemisia arctica aggregate A. arctica, A. comata, A. norvegica, A. subarctica

Geography: Disjunct European (N) - Asian (N) - amphi-Pacific/Beringian - Cordilleran.

Notes: Korobkov, Murray, and Elven: The Artemisia arctica aggregate is a complicated group distributed in a partly disjunct pattern from northwestern Europe throughout northern Eurasia to western North America. The disjunctions are found in Europe and northwestern Asia, whereas the range in northeastern Asia and North America is more continuous. Four species names are relevant for the Arctic parts, described from widely separated locations: A. norvegica Fr. 1817 from Norway; A. arctica Less. 1831 from the North Pacific regions with subsp. arctica, subsp. beringensis Hultén 1967, and subsp. ehrendorferi Korobkov 1979; A. comata Rydb. 1916 from northern Alaska; and A. subarctica Krasch. 1946 from northern Siberia. Artemisia comata and A. subarctica have sometimes been considered subspecies of A. arctica. Many American authors have applied the name A. norvegica subsp. saxatilis instead of A. arctica, e.g., Shultz (2006) who treated the North American parts of the group collectively as A. norvegica subsp. saxatilis with some discussion.

Korobkov (PAF proposal) argued for a solution with four species and for three subspecies within A. arctica. Elven and Murray support that solution but they have found it difficult to consistently separate two of the subspecies of A. arctica in the material. The arguments are given under the species and races below.