Panarctic Flora

863101 Packera heterophylla (Fisch.) E. Wiebe

• E. Wiebe, Fl. Sibir. 13: 162 (1997). - Cineraria heterophylla Fisch., Mém. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 3: 79 (1812). Described from Siberia (the Altai?). - Tephroseris heterophylla (Fisch.) Konechn., Bot. Zhurn. 66: 840 (1981).
• Senecio cymbalaria Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 530 (1813). Described from North America: "On the north-west coast". - Packera cymbalaria (Pursh), Á. Löve & D. Löve, Bot. Not. 128: 497 (1976).
• Senecio resedifolius Less., Linnaea 6: 243 (1831). - Nomen novum for Cineraria lyrata Ledeb., Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Pétersbourg Hist. Acad. 5: 576 (1815), non Senecio lyratus L. f. (1791). Described from St. Lawrence Bay in East Chukotka (the Russian Far East). Type in B? - Packera resedifolia (Less.) Á. Löve & D. Löve, Bot. Not. 128: 521 (1976).
• ?Senecio fernaldii Greenm., Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 3: 90 (1916). Holotype (GH): Canada: Newfoundland, Table Mountain, 16. Aug. 1910, leg. Fernald and Wiegand 4188. - ?Packera fernaldii (Greenm.) Á. Löve & D. Löve, Bot. Not. 128: 520 (1976).

2n= (1) 46 48 (2x). - Siberia (N, S), Asia (C), Far East (N). - At least five reports, several counts.
(2) ca. 70. - Siberia (Putorana). - Krogulevich (1976a).
(3) 80. - Far East (Chukotka). - Zhukova and Tikhonova (1971).
(4) ca. 90 92 (4x). - Siberia (N, S), Far East (N), Alaska, Canada (NW). - Several reports.
(5) 114 (5x). - Siberia. - Krogulevich and Rostovtseva (1984).
(6) 138 (6x). - Canada (E). - Packer (1972).
(7) 148-218. - Canada (E). - Kowal (1975).
Löve and Löve (1975a) reported the chromosome number of this species to be 2n = 92 (4x) and omitted all reports of the other numbers (most of them known already in 1975). Low-ploid numbers are, as far as known, restricted to Asia, whereas high-ploid ones have been made throughout. The most high-ploid of all are from the very isolated eastern Canadian populations assigned to Packera fernaldii.
Not included: Löve and Löve (1975a) cited two reports of the high-ploid number of 2n = 138 (6x) for Packera fernaldii, which they implied to be narrowly amphi-Beringian in spite of it being described with type from Newfoundland. One of these reports was originally published by Zhukova and Petrovsky for Senecio hyperborealis from Wrangel Island and has been transferred to Packera hyperborealis subsp. wrangelica. The other is from Table Mountain in Newfoundland and was correctly referred by Packer (1972) to P. fernaldii.

Geography: Asian (N/C) - amphi-Beringian - Cordilleran & North American (NE): RUS SIB RFE ALA CAN.

Notes: The valid name of this very widespread and attractive species depends on which genus it is assigned to. Four species epithets have been applied in recent decades. The oldest name, "heterophylla" Fisch. 1812 from Siberia, is applicable in Packera but not in Senecio, "cymbalaria" Pursh 1814 from northwestern North America is applicable in both genera, "lyrata" Ledeb. 1815 from East Chukotka is applicable in Packera but not in Senecio, and its nomen novum "resedifolia" Less. 1831 is applicable in both genera. This implies that the priority name should be either Packera heterophylla (Fisch.) E. Wiebe or Senecio cymbalaria Pursh, if we assume that all names refer to one species.

There is morphological variation but we find the northwestern North American and northern Asian plants very similar to plants from the Ayan Mountains by the Okhotsk Sea and from the Altai in southern Siberia (type area of "heterophylla") and to those from the Urals. It is probable that all the four names indicated above refer to one species. The very high polyploid eastern North American P. fernaldii deserves further study. It might be an allopolyploid species involving some other species in its genome. As it is non-arctic we do not consider it further.