Panarctic Flora

862206 Artemisia comata Rydb.

• Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 36: 263 (1916). Holotype (CAN): Alaska: Camden Bay, Collinson Point, 17. July 1914, leg. F. Johansen 122. - Artemisia arctica subsp. comata (Rydb.) Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 46, 1: 1559 (1950).

2n= 36 (4x). - Alaska. - Johnson and Packer (1968); perhaps also Packer and McPherson (1974, for A. arctica).
Not included: Löve and Löve (1975a) recorded five reports for A. comata, two North American as arctic, but except for the two above, these reports come from areas (Japan, Kamtchatka, the Queen Charlotte Islands) well outside the accepted range of A. comata. The reason for this is that the Löves assigned all reports of tetraploids in A. arctica known at their time to their concept of A. comata, making this into a major North Pacific species. This is obviously wrong as pointed out already by Korobkov (1981).

Geography: American Beringian: ALA CAN.

Notes: Korobkov, Murray, and Elven: All collections of Artemisia comata inspected by us (ALA, LE, O, S) consistently differ from A. arctica, also confirmed in the field in Alaska by Murray, Elven, and Solstad. We consider this to be a true arctic, independent species differing in growth form, inflorescence type, and leaf dissection from all the other forms known in the A. norvegica-A. arctica affinity, but probably most closely related to A. arctica subsp. arctica. It occurs within the range of A. arctica in northern Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Intermediates have not been observed even where the two grow very close together (sometimes in mixed stands as observed by Elven and Solstad in the Brooks Range in 2003). Hultén (1950) considered "comata" a subspecies of A. arctica but obviously had little or no field experience with it.

Ling (1996) considered A. comata to be the same taxon as A. arctica var. saxatilis. We do not know the reasons but this synonymization is highly improbable.