| Trisetum spicatum (L.) K. Richt. | |
| Publ. & Syn. | ?Trisetum alaskanum Nash, Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 2: 155 (1901). Type: Alaska: Skagway, 28. Aug. 1899, leg. R.S. Williams. - ?Trisetum spicatum subsp. alaskanum (Nash) Hultén, Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 53: 210 (1959). - ?Trisetum molle subsp. alaskanum (Nash) Rebrist., Fl. Arct. URSS 2: 100 (1964). |
| Notes | The material from Europe (except Iceland) and from the High Arctic is homogeneous and also uniformly counted as tetraploid. We do not accept the entities proposed in the synonymy as independent taxa. Variety villosissimum was described from Greenland. Scoggan (1978b) stated that it only was known from its "type locality" in southern Greenland, but see above where several syntypes from different localities are cited. It seems to be a minor local variant within T. spicatum s. str. and we consider the name a synonym. Subspecies wrangelense was described from Wrangel Island and has also been reported from East Chukotka. Yurtsev commented that a very similar plant was collected in 1993 on the Seward Peninsula in western Alaska. Murray and Elven studied this western Alaskan material (ALA) which Yurtsev annotated as subsp. wrangelense. They found it quite normal for northern T. spicatum. Moreover, they compared specimens of subsp. wrangelense from Wrangel Island with other high-arctic plants and did not find any difference. We synonymize this name with T. spicatum s. str. The amphi-Pacific subsp. alaskanum may be more problematic. It is reported to be mainly tetraploid. Tzvelev commented that it morphologically is more similar to the hexaploid subsp. molle than to the tetraploid subsp. spicatum. We include it provisionally in the synonymy of T. spicatum s. str. until its relationships to T. molle are resolved. |
| Chromosomes | 28 (4x). - Europe (N), Russia (N), Siberia, Far East (N, S), Alaska, Canada, U.S.A., Greenland. - Numerous reports, some for "wrangelense", three from the Far East for "alaskanum". Not included: Tzvelev (1976) referred to reports of diploids (2n = 14) from Putorana in northern Siberia (Krogulevich 1976a) and of hexaploids (2n = 42) from several areas. These need more documentation before acceptance. Tateoka (1978) reported a hexaploid number (2n = 42) from Japan. Fedorov (1969), probably as an editing error, referred as diploid several counts originally published as tetraploid. |
| Geography | Circumpolar-alpine: ICE NOR RUS SIB RFE ALA CAN GRL. |
| Distribution | N = F A = R AN = f B = F AO = f C = F GW = f D = F Ic = f E = F CC = f WI = f YG = f HL = f FN = s EP = f CE = f CS = f UN = f YK = r AW = f GE = f Kh = f SF = f CW = f Tm = f KP = f [ key ] |
| Parent taxon | Trisetum Pers. |
| PAF ID | 341203 |