862226b Artemisia borealis subsp. richardsoniana (Besser) Korobkov
Distribution
Taimyr - Severnaya Zemlya: Rare
Kharaulakh: Rare
Wrangel Island: Scattered
Western Alaska: Rare
Northern Alaska - Yukon: Rare
Central Canada: Scattered
Mid Arctic Tundra: Rare
Southern Arcti Tundra: Scattered
Shrub Tundra: Scattered
- Korobkov, Fl. Arct. URSS 10: 178 (1987). - Artemisia richardsoniana Besser, Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 9: 64, 112 (1836). Nomen novum for Artemisia arctica Besser in Hook., Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 323 (1833), non Less. (1831). Type (K): Canada: the Northwest Territories, "Arctic Sea coast" Cape Parry, leg. Richardson.
- Artemisia henriettae Krasch., Bot. Mater. Gerb. Bot. Inst. Komarova Akad. Nauk SSSR 9: 175 (1946). Holotype (LE): Siberia: Yakutia, "Insula Henrietta ex insulis Delong, litus australis", 04. Aug. 1938, leg. Leonov. - Oligosporus henriettae (Krasch.) Poljakov, Trudy Inst. Bot. (Alma-Ata) 11: 168 (1961).
2n=
36 (4x). - Far East (N). - Petrovsky and Zhukova (1983b).
Geography: Asian (NE) - amphi-Beringian - North American (NW): SIB RFE ALA CAN.
Notes: Elven: Ling (1996) considered Artemisia richardsoniana the same as A. arctica and not as very closely related to A. borealis. The relations of subsp. richardsonii to A. borealis s. str. are close, those to A. arctica Less. are very distant (i.e., different subgenera). Ling may have been confused by the name A. arctica Besser, non Less., see above.
Korobkov, Murray, and Elven: American authors (e.g., Cody 1996) have considered A. richardsoniana a northwestern North American species present only within the area of the Pleistocene Beringian 'shelf'. Krasnoborov (1997) accepted A. henriettae as a northeastern Siberian local species (Henrietta Island is one of the small De Long Islands northeast of the New Siberian Islands). Krascheninnikov (1946: 175) stated A. henriettae to differ from A. borealis in being "more low-grown, with larger tussocks, much shorter stems, and capitulae densely congested in a head" (translated here from the protologue). These 'characters' fit also A. richardsoniana. Korobkov tentatively extended the range of A. richardsoniana to northern and northeastern Asia by including A. henriettae (as species in Korobkov's PAF proposal), possibly as subspecies. Murray and Elven are ambivalent. Until A. richardsoniana and A. henriettae are better understood, we enter A. borealis subsp. richardsoniana (including A. henriettae) as an amphi-Beringian and northern Siberian subspecies.
There are plants resembling subsp. richardsoniana (and A. henriettae) also in other regions. A plant in northeastern European Russia in Vaigach and Novaya Zemlya is relatively broad-lobed and compact and superficially nearly inseparable from Canadian subsp. richardsoniana in leaf structure, lobe width, and inflorescence. We have seen similar plants from northern Yakutia (probably A. henriettae, together with 'normals'), Wrangel Island, the Chukchi Peninsula, and around Teller in western Alaska. The situation resembles that between A. arctica and A. comata (see above). We may have two related, largely sympatric species.
Higher Taxa
- Artemisia borealis [862226,species]