863206 Saussurea angustifolia (L.) DC.
- DC., Ann. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. 16: 200 (1810). - Serratula alpina var. angustifolia L., Sp. Pl.: 817 (1753). Type not designated. Original material: J.G. Gmelin, Fl. Sibir. 2: 78, t. 33. 1752. - Serratula angustifolia (L.) Willd., Sp. Pl. 3, 3: 1642 (1803).
Geography: Amphi-Beringian.
Notes: Elven, Murray, and Korobkov: Saussurea angustifolia s. lat. is an amphi-Beringian group of 2-3 taxa. Hultén (1968a) treated it as two species: the mainly American Beringian S. angustifolia s. str. and the amphi-Beringian S. viscida with the Bering Sea insular var. viscida and the alpine Alaskan and Yukon Territory var. yukonensis. He considered var. yukonensis as "possibly the hybrid S. angustifolia x viscida". If var. yukonensis is of this hybrid origin, it must be fairly old as its entire range falls outside that of Hultén's S. viscida s. str. Hultén assigned much importance to the rich presence of viscid multicellular hairs in S. viscida var. viscida, some viscid hairs in var. yukonensis, and much more sparse or absent in S. angustifolia. We are not sure that these hairs are as important as assumed by Hultén (or by Keil 2006).
Another proposal was made by Welsh (1974) when he treated Hultén's S. viscida as a var. viscida of S. angustifolia. In his Yukon flora, Cody (1996) assigned subsp. yukonensis to S. angustifolia but did not mention S. viscida as it is absent from the Yukon Territory. Korobkov (PAF proposal) followed Welsh and treated S. viscida as a variety of S. angustifolia. Keil (2006) accepted three varieties. We are not aware of any modern or experimental investigation of this group. We provisionally treat the group as one species - S. angustifolia - with a main subsp. angustifolia with an implied widespread var. angustifolia and a Bering Sea insular var. viscida, and an alpine Alaska and Yukon Territory subsp. yukonensis (see below as to possibly different rank).
Higher Taxa
- Saussurea [8632,genus]