Myosotis laxa Lehm.
Publ. & Syn.Lehm., Pl. Asperif. Nucif. 1: 83 (1818). Described from North America ("America septentrionali").
NotesThe infraspecific variation in Myosotis laxa s. lat. in Europe including Russia is complicated and not sufficiently studied. We have assumed that there is one major American and amphi-Atlantic but non-arctic subsp. laxa, one major Eurasian subsp. cespitosa that reaches the Arctic, probably only as an adventive, and one more local and non-arctic subsp. baltica (Sam.) Hyl. ex Nordh. in the Baltic area (see, e.g., Hultén and Fries 1986). If the taxa we recognize in northwestern Europe are connected to the names we apply, subsp. cespitosa and subsp. laxa are too insufficiently differentiated to deserve the specific rank accepted by Petrovsky (1980a, PAF proposal). However, there are some doubts whether the European interpretation of the American plant is correct. In the original diagnosis (and illustration), Lehmann stated M. laxa to have ebracteate racemes, whereas the northern European plants assigned to M. laxa s. str. are characterized vs. subsp. cespitosa by being bracteate.
Chromosomes64 66 (6x?). - Europe, Canada (W). - Numerous reports.
Not included: Reports of 2n = 22 (2x) from Siberia, 42 from Iceland, and 44 (4x) from Belarus and Siberia. These reports probably belong to other species.
GeographyNearly circumboreal & South American.
Parent taxonMyosotis L.
Child taxa Myosotis laxa subsp. cespitosa (Schultz) Hyl. ex Nordh.
PAF ID830502
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Panarctic Flora Editor-in-Chief: Reidar Elven (Natural History Museum, University of Oslo)
Editorial Committee: Reidar Elven, David F. Murray (Museum of the North, University of Alaska), Volodya Yu. Razzhivin (Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences), Boris A. Yurtsev [deceased] (Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences)