| Draba glacialis Adams | |
| Publ. & Syn. | Adams, Mém. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 5: 156 (1817). Syntypes (MW!, G-DC!): Siberia: Yakutia, "ad mare glacial." [the Lena River estuary], leg. Adams. |
| Notes | Elven and Solstad: The northern Siberian plant most similar to Draba alpina has for a long time been recognized by Russian authors as D. glacialis. We have inspected the syntypes in G-DC (two, ex Herb. Steven and ex Herb. Fischer) and the one in MW. They are all similar and differ from D. alpina in, e.g., a dense pubescence of stellate or branched hairs on the leaves. We studied the plant in the field in northern Yakutia in 2004. Our view is that this plant differs from D. alpina as now typified (and also from D. corymbosa and D. oxycarpa) and that it should be accepted as species. It is the main species replacing D. alpina in northern Siberia. The material from the reported zone of overlap between D. alpina and D. glacialis in Kanin-Pechora and Polar Ural-Novaya Zemlya should be carefully studied. Russian investigators have assigned more plants to D. glacialis than we would do. Draba glacialis may have a larger range. From Svalbard is known at least one population of plants deviating from D. alpina in the direction of D. glacialis (O, good collections in 2009 and 2010 from Colesbukta on Spitsbergen). It shares the tall stature and the uniformly multibranched hairs on leaves but has hairy fruits. Svalbard D. alpina also often has hairy fruits but differ in other characters. The Colesbukta plant does not fit within any of the other species reported from Svalbard. A similar plant has been collected in numerous sites in the surroundings of Hudson Bay (CAN, DAO, MW, O). Tolmachev annotated the MW specimen from Hudson Bay as D. glacialis. Further and more critical inspection of these plants are needed before the species is accepted from outside Russia and Siberia. The ploidy level of D. glacialis is not known. Petrovsky commented that a report of a diploid (2n = 16) from Taimyr (Zhukova and Petrovsky 1984) probably is erroneous. There are two voucher sheets given the same reference number. The other sheet contains D. fladnizensis, well-known as diploid. For a report of an octoploid (2n = 64) from Churchill at Hudson Bay, see D. oxycarpa below. |
| Chromosomes | 80 (10x). - Europe (Norway, Sweden, Bear Island, Svalbard). - At least five reports, several counts. Not included (yet): Reports of 2n = 80 (10x) assigned to D. alpina by Mulligan (2002) but where vouchers should be compared with European plants, by Packer and McPherson (1974) from northern Alaska well outside the known range and almost certainly from (an)other species, and by Mulligan (2002) six counts from Nunavut, at least some of which may be relevant for D. alpina. |
| Geography | European (NE) - Asian (N) & North American (NE)?: NOR? RUS SIB CAN? |
| Distribution | N = S B = R AO = f C = F D = F E = F YG = s HL = ? UN = f YK = r Kh = f SF = ? Tm = f KP = r [ key ] |
| Parent taxon | Draba L. |
| PAF ID | 672107 |