| Eritrichium aretioides (Cham.) DC. | |
| Publ. & Syn. | DC., Prodr. 10: 125 (1846). - Myosotis aretioides Cham., Linnaea 4: 443 (1829). Holotype (LE): Russian Far East: East Chukotka, "ad sinum St Laurentii", and Alaska, "in insula Sancti Laurentii in sinu Bering", leg. A. Chamisso. Probably erroneously reported from St. Lawrence Island. |
| Notes | Murray and Elven: Petrovsky (1980a, PAF proposal) accepted two races: var. aretioides and var. chamissonis. The two nearly sympatric varieties are morphologically recognizable, especially in the close surroundings of the Bering Strait. Tribsch (unpubl.) did not find significant differences between them in molecular markers (AFLP) but the samples he analysed as "chamissonis" may not belong to that taxon. We accept the two taxa and suspect that their rank perhaps should be as species. Cordilleran material assigned to E. aretioides differs from the northern material morphologically and in molecular markers (Tribsch unpubl.). It should be assigned to another species for which the name E. elongatum (Rydb.) Wight might be the earliest available, based on a type from Montana. This species is reported from Colorado as a tetraploid (2n = 24; Löve and Löve 1975d). |
| Chromosomes | 24 (4x, x = 6). - Siberia (N), Far East (N). - At least five reports, numerous counts, all probably belonging to subsp. villosum. Not included: A report of 2n = 48 from Chukotka (Zhukova et al. 1973) is a case of somatic polyploidy (Petrovsky, comment). A report of 2n = 24 (4x) from China (Ma et al. 1990); the species is otherwise not accepted from China. |
| Geography | Amphi-Beringian. |
| Parent taxon | Eritrichium Schrad. ex Gaudin |
| Child taxa |
Eritrichium aretioides var. aretioides Eritrichium aretioides var. chamissonis (DC.) V.V. Petrovsky |
| PAF ID | 830102 |