862213 Artemisia hyperborea Rydb.
Distribution
Central Canada: Rare
Mid Arctic Tundra: Presence uncertain
Southern Arcti Tundra: Rare
Shrub Tundra: Rare
Bordering boreal or alpine areas: Rare
- Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 34, 3: 262 (1916). Holotype (CAN): Canada: Nunavut, sand dunes at Bernard Harbour, 14. Aug. 1915, leg. F. Johansen 3049.
Geography: American Beringian: CAN.
Notes: Korobkov, Murray, and Elven: Hultén (1968a) and Cody (1996) included Artemisia hyperborea in A. furcata, now assigned to another section. Hultén annotated as A. furcata the Alaskan and Canadian specimens (in S) that we would assign to A. hyperborea. Shultz (2006) followed previous authors and merged A. hyperborea with A. furcata.
We consider A. hyperborea to be a species well apart from A. furcata and differing in several independent features. It reaches the Arctic in northwestern Canada in the northern mainland Northwest Territories, northwestern mainland Nunavut, and in Victoria and Banks islands, but not in Alaska where it stops in the Ogilvie Mountains. It belongs among the northeastern Beringian 'shelf' endemics. The northwestern Canadian 'shelf' plants of A. hyperborea are morphologically uniform, whereas those of eastern Alaska and the interior Yukon Territory deviate and are also found in more alpine sites, but they are even more different from A. furcata.
In addition, there are some plants in non-arctic southern Alaska currently assigned to A. furcata but fairly different both from this species and from A. hyperborea. The more low-ploid northwestern North American counts included above under A. furcata could belong to either (or both) of these. Artemisia furcata and A. hyperborea are in need of a combined morphological and molecular investigation. More than two species (or taxa) may be involved.
Higher Taxa
- Artemisia [8622,genus]