| Polemonium pulcherrimum Hook. | |
| Publ. & Syn. | Hook., Bot. Mag. 57: t. 2979 (1830). Holotype (K): Canada: British Columbia, "on the highest of the Rocky Mountains", leg. T. Drummond. |
| Notes | Murray: Grant (1989) published the combination Polemonium pulcherrimum subsp. lindleyi and assigned a majority of Alaskan specimens to that subspecies. We (ALA) have only a few Alaskan sheets of P. pulcherrimum subsp. pulcherrimum. All of our specimens are non-arctic with the exception of one sheet from the Bethel area (the lower Kuskokwim River region, beyond, I believe, treeline). Borderline Arctic. Grant annotated that sheet as subsp. lindleyi. The difference between the two subspecies is obvious when both are at hand but it comes down to size. Subspecies lindleyi: plants tall 15-40 cm high (vs. 10-20 cm in subsp. pulcherrimum); calyx and corolla 10-14 mm long (vs. 7-12 mm). Elven: Tzvelev (1995) and Rybinskaya (1997) accepted P. pulcherrimum from Asia and reported it from, respectivelly, southwestern Chukokta and northeastern Yakutia (with occurrence in the Borderline Arctic along the Kolyma River). We collected material we would assign to P. pulcherrimum on the Chukchi Peninsula in 2005. We suspect that also the plants from South Chukotka and northeastern Yakutia, and at least some of the plants reported as "hyperboreum", belong to P. pulcherrimum subsp. lindleyi. If so, the Löve combination of P. pulcherrimum subsp. hyperboreum may have priority before subsp. lindleyi for the northern race if these plants belong to the same race. The types behind these names must be compared. |
| Chromosomes | 18 (2x). - Alaska. - Dawe and Murray (1979). |
| Geography | Amphi-Beringian - Cordilleran. |
| Parent taxon | Polemonium L. |
| Child taxa |
Polemonium pulcherrimum subsp. lindleyi (Wherry) V.E. Grant Polemonium pulcherrimum subsp. pulcherrimum |
| PAF ID | 700205 |