| Deschampsia brevifolia R. Br. | |
| Publ. & Syn. | R. Br., Chlor. Melvill.: 33 (1823). Holotype (K): Canada: the Northwest Territories?, Melville Island [the Winter Harbour area], 1819-1820, leg. W.E. Parry. - Deschampsia cespitosa subsp. brevifolia (R. Br.) Tzvelev, Fl. Sev.-Vost. Evrop. Chasti SSSR 1: 141 (1974) [comb. illeg., see note]. - Aira arctica Spreng., Syst. Veg. 4, 2: 32 (1827) [nom. illeg.]. Nomen novum for Deschampsia brevifolia R. Br., non Aira brevifolia M. Bieb., Fl. Taur.-Cauc. 3: 63 (1819). - Deschampsia arctica (Spreng.) Merr., Rhodora 4: 143 (1902). |
| Notes | For a long time, Deschampsia brevifolia was accepted from Svalbard (Hadac 1942; Rønning 1964, 1979; Clarke 1980a), in error for D. sukatschewii subsp. borealis (Elven and Elvebakk 1996). Tzvelev's combination D. cespitosa subsp. brevifolia is an illegitime homonym due to the heterotypic D. cespitosa var. brevifolia Griseb. 1852, the latter name according to Chiapella et al. in Soreng et al. (2003) referable to subsp. cespitosa. See McNeill et al. (2006, ICBN article 53.4). Aiken: Separation between D. cespitosa subsp. brevifolia and "subsp. cespitosa" was difficult in the Canadian Arctic, Aiken et al. (1996): "Specimens intergrading between typical subsp. cespitosa and extreme subsp. brevifolia occur, sometimes at the same site, so that the recognition of the taxon as a subspecies as suggested by Tzvelev (1974) appears more appropriate than the full species status given in Porsild (1957)." We now think that the observed variation is within D. brevifolia. |
| Chromosomes | 26 (2x). - Far East (N), Alaska, Canada, Greenland. - Several reports. Not included: In view of the complexity in this genus, vouchers for 2n = 52 from Putorana in northern Siberia (Krogulevich 1976a) and from Wrangel Island in the Russian Far East (Petrovsky and Zhukova 1981) should be reexamined. |
| Geography | Asian (N) - amphi-Beringian - North American (N): SIB RFE ALA CAN GRL. |
| Distribution | N = R A = F AN = f B = F AO = s C = F GW = r D = S E = S CC = f WI = s HL = r EP = f CE = r CS = r YK = s AW = r GE = s Kh = s Tm = s [ key ] |
| Parent taxon | Deschampsia P. Beauv. |
| PAF ID | 341603 |