| Armeria scabra Pall. ex Roem. & Schult. | |
| Publ. & Syn. | Armeria vulgaris f. arctica Cham., Linnaea 6: 566 (1831). Described from "Unalaschka. Sinus Sti. Laurentii. Sinus Schischmareffii. Promontorium Espenbergii" (i.e., the Bering Sea and Strait areas in Chukotka and Alaska). - Armeria maritima subsp. arctica (Cham.) Hultén, Acta Univ. Lund., n. s., sect. 2, 44, 1: 1295 (1948). |
| Notes | Tzvelev, Yurtsev, Murray, and Elven: We regard the plants of North America and Greenland and those of Eurasia as belonging to a single species. The name Armeria scabra has priority before A. labradorica and A. sibirica. For a subspecies, subsp. sibirica has priority before subsp. labradorica (as A. scabra subsp. labradorica (Wallr.) Iversen). For "labradorica", see Lefèbvre and Vekemans (1995). Hultén (1948) and other authors have reported the Beringian plants from West Chukotka east to the Mackenzie River to differ from A. scabra s. str. in a few characters: leaves ciliate vs. glabrous, and calyx pilose only on ribs vs. pilose both on and between ribs. The calyx difference is illustrated by Porsild and Cody (1980: 506). These plants have been proposed as A. maritima subsp. arctica. Armeria scabra s. str. is, according to this view, absent between West Chukotka and the Mackenzie. We have surveyed a circumpolar material and do not find the characters reported for subsp. arctica to be diagnostic for a Beringian taxon. The calyx feature of subsp. arctica is found in other regions, e.g., in northeastern Canada (Ellesmere Island), northern Siberia (Taimyr), and even in northern Scandinavia. Also ciliate leaves occur here and there outside the range of the proposed subsp. arctica. |
| Chromosomes | 18 (2x). - Europe (N), Russia (N), Siberia (N), Far East (N), Alaska, Canada, Greenland. - Numerous reports under several names. |
| Geography | Circumpolar: NOR RUS SIB RFE ALA CAN GRL. |
| Distribution | N = S AN = f B = R AO = s C = F GW = f D = F E = F CC = f WI = f YG = f HL = f FN = s EP = s CE = f CS = f UN = s YK = r AW = f GE = f Kh = f CW = f Tm = f KP = s [ key ] |
| Parent taxon | Armeria Willd. |
| PAF ID | 400102 |