Antennaria alpina (L.) Gaertner subsp. canescens (Lange) Chmiel.
Asteraceae (Compositae), daisy family.
Rhodora 100: 61.1998
Antennaria alpina (L.) Gaertn. var. canescens Lange, Fl. Dan.
47: 9, t. 2786, f. 1.1869.
Antennaria canescens (Lange) Malte,
Rhodora 36: 109. 1934.
Antennaria sornborgeri Fernald, Rhodora 18:
237. 1916.
Antennaria brevistyla Fernald, Rhodora 33: 323. 1931.
Antennaria. atriceps Fernald in Raup, Contrib. Arnold Arb. 6: 207.
1934.
Antennaria. subcanescens Ostenf. ex Malte, Rhodora 36: 112.
1934.
Antennaria. boecheriana A.E.Porsild, Bot. Tidskr. 61: 36. 1965.
Antennaria. canescens (Lange) Malte subsp. boecheriana
(A.E.Porsild) Á.Löve
Antennaria canescens (Lange) Malte
var. pseudoporsildii Böcher, Medd. Grønl. 148, 3: 32. 1963
Type: Greenland: District Colon, Godthaab, 07–08 without year, leg. Vahl (C) lectotype, selected by Chmielewski, Rhodora 100: 61. 1998
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; (4–)5–15 cm high; with a matted growth of tufts of basal leaves from freely branched, creeping and spreading underground stems, and flowering heads of several heads. Taproot absent (fibrous roots arising from the underground stem). Caudex present. Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal; rhizomatous, or stoloniferous; elongate, or compact; 0.5–2 mm wide. Vegetative, aerial, stem a small transition zone between roots and basal leaves. Leaves in a basal tuft; alternate; simple; marcescent. Petioles absent. Leaf blade bases truncate, or attenuate. Blades 8–12(–15) mm long (flowering stem leaves sometimes longer than the basal leaves); 1–2.5 mm wide. Blades spreading (to decumbent); oblanceolate; flat; with inconspicuous veins. Blades adaxial surface hairy. Blades adaxial surface hairs woolly (with hairs to 1.5 mm long); simple, unbranched; dense; white and translucent (the hairs), or grey (ashy, the surface colour of the leaf from the dense hair cover). Blades abaxial surface hairy. Blades abaxial surface hairs very dense. Blades abaxial surface hairs woolly (similar to the adaxial surface). Blades abaxial surface hairs white, or translucent hairs; straight; appressed. Leaf apices acuminate, or acute (basal leaves; upper leaves of the flowering stems are tipped with brown, scale-like, glabrous "flags" to 1.5 mm long).
Reproductive morphology. Plants dioecious, or bisexual (functional pollen unknown in arctic plants). Flowering stems present. Flowering stems with leaves; hairy. Flowering stem hairs woolly; simple; longer than the diameter of the flowering stem; white or translucent. Inflorescence of several flowering heads; globose or subglobose, or ovate (very broadly); 1–2 cm long; 10–20(–25) mm wide. Capitula 7–10(–12) mm deep. Capitula 6–12 mm wide. Pedicels subtending flowering heads; with non-glandular hairs (very short). Involucral bracts present (also flowering stem leaves at the base of the short pedicels and bract leaves on the short pedicels subtending the capitulum); number of rows 2–3. Outer involucral bracts blade surface flat; mostly green (with flag-like brown scale tips); lying adjacent to the flowers; lanceolate; glabrous (at the apex), or sparsely hairy (at the base); hairs non-glandular; 4–4.5 mm high (bract leaves towads the top of the pedicels 5–5.5 mm long); 1–1.5 mm wide. Inner involucral bracts apex entire (attenuate with a reduced "flag"); lanceolate; margins herbaceous; dark browish green at the apex; 4.5–5 mm high; 0.5–0.7 mm wide. With only disc florets. Flowers actinomorphic. Calyx modified to a pappus. Calyx accrescent. Pappus with a single row of hairs. Disc floret pappus 4.5–5.2 mm long. Petals fused; 5; purple (or magenta in a short zone at the top, elsewhere transparent); 3.5–4 mm long. Corolla tubular; unlobed (fringed), or 5-lobed (slightly). Flowers unisexual (usually), or bisexual (but functional pollen unknown in arctic plants). Stamens absent, or not functional. Gynoecia inferior. Carpels syncarpous; 2. Styles 1; 4–4.5 mm long. Stigmas per style 2. Placentation basal. Ovules 1. Fruit sessile. Fruit with calyx persisting; dry; cypselas (no achenes seen in Arctic material); indehiscent. Fruit 1.4–1.5 mm long. Seeds 1.
Chromosome information. 2n = 56. Jørgensen et al. (1958 Greenland); Löve (1970a Iceland?); Löve in Moore (1982 Iceland, for A. boecherana); Bayer and Stebbins (1987, for A. atriceps); Chmielewski and Chinnappa (1990, for A. atriceps). Ploidy levels recorded 8x.
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: amphi-Atlantic and North American (occuring from Greenland to Alaska), or Far East (possibly in the northeast); Greenland, Canada, United States. Nunavut Islands, Continental Nunavut, Northern Québec. Low arctic. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago limited. Uncommon. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Parry Islands, Banks.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: slopes; imperfectly drained moist areas, or dry; gravel, sand; with low organic content, or with high organic content. Habitats: uncommon on dry mineral soil amongst boulders with Hierochloe alpina (CAN 549940); damp herbmats among willows (CAN 302108); matted in dry grass tussock (Poa arctica) on dryish slope (CAN 302118); damp favorable grass slope with Bartsia, Veronica alpina, Potentilla crantzii (CAN 302105).
Notes. The species, in North America, is characterized by its dark
green to black involucral bracts (phyllaries) and conspicuous flags on the upper
and middle cauline leaves. The basal leaves vary from glabrous,, to pubescent.
Male plants occur in low frequency, often localised in certain areas. Male
plants are unknown iNorth Americaerican-Greenland plants of subsp.
canescens. They are present among Scandianavian plants (i.e. subsp.
alpina). The subspecies is agamospermic.
Antennaria alpina
belongs to Section Alpinae that is one of five large polyploid species
complexes within the genus. The section has about 20 species names that are
currently applied in an arctic context The majority relate to plants in North
America and Greenland. Section Alpinae has been found to contain some
sexual populations with both staminate and pistillate clones and some that are
agamospermous. Agamospermous seed production occurs via diplospory and is
followed by diploid parthenogensis. This was first demonstrated by Juel (1900).
This species complex is one of the most morphologically variable of all the
agamic complexes in the genus. The sexual populations occur in the southern part
of the range.
Some taxonomists have argued that true A. alpina does
not occur in North America (Malte, 1934). This is because none of the North
American material exactly matches the type of A. alpina, which is from
Lapland and is deposited at LINN. Bayer and Stebbins (1993) stated that if one
uses a strict typological species concept this is true, but he recognized that
the A. alpina species complex is composed of innumerable apomictic
clones. He circumscribed a broad species concept for A. alpina and this
may influence the developing Flora of North America treatment that he has been
assigned to write.
Hultén and Fries (1986) mapped A. alpina s.
s. for Fennoscandia only. All plants from Iceland westwards were mapped as A.
canescens.
Antennaria canescens in a previous restricted meaning
was confined to Greenland and north eastern Canada. Male plants are unknown in
Greenland and North America. Several authors (e.g., Löve 1970a,
Hämet-Ahti et al. 1986) have reported this entity also from northern
Fennoscandia but in this area some recent investigators have considered A.
canescens to be the sexual plants with mixed sexes in the populations
whereas A. alpina s. str. was the purely female agamospermic. Opinions
obviously differ. Chmielewski (1998) included both northernorthern European,
Greenlandic, Canadian and Alaskan plants in his wide concept of subsp.
canescens. Europeans feel the need for a more extensive analysis before
we fully accept the presence of two 'hairy' subspecies in Scandinavia (and
Iceland), 'alpina' and 'canescens'.
Bayer (1993a) considered
that A. alpina s.s. is circumboreal, fully agamospermous, and primarily
hexaploid, 2n = 84. Bayer in Cody (1996) treated this aggregate
collectively, probably because it was difficult to analyse it on North American
representatives alone. Ideally it whould be treated in the same way as the A.
friesiana and A. monocephala aggregates but that is currently not
possible because the aggregate has not been studied as extensively. Bayer
(1993a) applied the collective name A. alpina also for some
northwesterNorth Americaerican and amphi-Beringian entities, 'compacta',
'cryomophylla', and perhaps 'subcanescens' . This is not
considered the best solution and these entities - 'compacta',
'cryomophylla' and perhaps 'subcanescens' are here treated as
belonging to the A. friesiana group. Even so, A. alpina is still a
very heterogeneous species.
Chmielewski (1998), used canonical discriminant
analysis to determine:
(1) whether A. alpina occurs in North America
or not;
(2) which characters or combination of characters could best be used
to distinguish members of the A. alpina and A. media polyploid
complexes (A. media as interpreted here, occurs south of the
Arctic)
(3) whether infraspecific taxa warrant formal recognition in A.
alpina. He found that A. alpina does occur in North America and
suggested that the main morphological distinctions between the two
aforementioned polyploid complexes are:
(a) the presence of scarious tips at
the ends of middle to distal peduncular leaves in A. alpina, these being
absent in A. media, and
(b) the shape of the involucral bracts. The
analyses of Chmielewski (1998) supported the recognition of A. alpina
subsp. canescens and subsp. porsildii that she stated differed
with respect to the degree, distribution and type of pubescence of the basal
leaves.
Elven (2001) examined a sheet from Baffin Island, Cape Searle, (CAN
205051), annotated as A. alpina subsp. porsildii by Chmielewski
(1998) and considered it closer to the A. monocephala agg. and preferred
to use the name A. glabrata (J. Vahl) Greene, at that time.
Elven et
al. (2002) commenting on Antennaria alpina (L.) Gaertn. subsp.
porsildii (E.Ekman) Chmiel. stated, "A. glabrata may be
problematic to include in subsp. porsildii. It is typified from western
Greenland: Disco, 07–08. without year, leg. Vahl (C) lectotype, selected by
Chmielewski (1998). The 'entity' is frequent in western Greenland, very
scattered in northeast Canada and in some sources also reported with a small
area in the Canadian Rockies (omitted by Chmielewski). Male plants are unknown.
It is in some features intermediate between the A. alpina and A.
monocephala aggregates and fairly distinct from the main body of
'porsildii' s. str. in Greenland and Scandinavia; its most evidently
divergent features are: one or very few and congested heads, narrow (non
spathulate) leaves, and lack of runners. The Baffin Island plants mapped by
Chmielewski (in Canada) belong to this 'entity' and are generally more similar,
in my opinion, to A. monocephala s. lat. than to A. alpina s. lat.
Antennaria glabrata was accepted as a separate species by Scoggan
(1979)."
Antennaria glabrata may be problematic to include in subsp.
porsildii. It is typified from W Greenland: Disco, 07–08. without
year, leg. Vahl (C) lectotype, selected by Chmielewski (1998), Rhodora 100: 64.
The 'entity' is frequent in W Greenland, very scattered in northe eastern Canada
and in some sources also reported with a small area in the eastern Canadian
Rockies (omitted by Chmielewski). Male plants are unknown. It is in some
features intermediate between the A. alpina and A. monocephala
aggregates and fairly distinct from the main body of 'porsildii' s. str.
in Greenland and Scandinavia; its most evidently divergent features are: one or
very few and congested heads, narrow (non spathulate) leaves, and lack of
runners. The Baffin Island plants mapped by Chmielewski (in Canada) belong to
this 'entity' and are generally more similar, in my opinion, to A.
monocephala s. lat. than to A. alpina s. lat. Antennaria
glabrata was accepted as a separate species by Scoggan (1979).".
Illustrations. • Arctic Island Distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, M.J. Dallwitz, L.L. Consaul, C.L. McJannet, L.J. Gillespie, R.L. Boles, G.W. Argus, J.M. Gillett, P.J. Scott, R. Elven, M.C. LeBlanc, A.K. Brysting and H. Solstad. 1999 onwards. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 29th April 2003. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) should also be cited (see References).
