Silene uralensis (Rupr.) Bocquet
Nodding Campion.
Caryophyllaceae, pink family.
Candollea 22: 25. 1967.
Gastrolychnis uralensis Rupr. Beitr. Pflanzenk. Russ. Reiches 7: 30. 1850.
Type: Russia, "Westfusse des Ural im 67 1/2o in der Nähe des Flusses Porotsch-jadyr", 23./24.07.1848, leg. Ruprecht (possibly in LE) holotype, illustrated in Ruprecht, Fl. Bor.-Ural. tab. 1 fig. 2. 1854.
Wahlbergella apetala (L.) Fr. var. (beta) arctica Th. Fr.
Silene uralensis (Rupr.) Bocquet subsp. arctica (Th. Fr.)
Bocquet
Silene wahlbergella Chowdhuri subsp. arctica (Th. Fr.)
Hultén
Melandrium apetalum (L.) Fenzl subsp. arcticum
(Th. Fr.) Hultén
Gastrolychnis apetala (L.) Tolm. and Kozh.
subsp. arctica (Th. Fr.) Á. and D. Löve
Silene
attenuata (Farr) Bocquet
Silene uralensis (Rupr.) Bocquet subsp.
attenuata (Farr) McNeill
Melandrium apetala (L.) Fenzl subsp.
attenuatum (Farr) Hara
Wahlbergella attenuata (Farr) Rydb.
Gastrolychnis apetala (L.) Tolm. and Kozh.
Gastrolychnis
apetala subsp. arctica (Fries) Á. and D.
Löve
Gastrolychnis apetala subsp. uralensis (Rupr.)
Löve
Lychnis apetala L., non Silene apetala Willd.
Lychnis apetala var. glabra Regel
Melandrium
apetalum (L.) Fenzl
Melandrium apetalum subsp. arcticum
(Fries) Hultén
Melandrium apetalum var. glabrum (Regel)
Hultén
Silene wahlenbergella Chowdhuri
Silene
wahlenbergella subsp. arctica (Fries) Hultén
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; 4–15(–30) cm high; caespitose; with numerous leaves in a basal tuft around the base of the stem and unbranched flowering stem. Taproot present. Caudex present. Ground-level or under-ground stems not developed horizontally or vertically. Aerial stems erect; sparsely hairy, or densely hairy; stem hairs spreading, or erect. Leaves in a basal tuft; opposite; marcescent. Petioles absent. Leaf blade bases attenuate. Blades 10–40 mm long; 2–3(–5) mm wide. Blades spreading; herbaceous; oblanceolate, or spatulate (narrowly so); flat; appearing single-veined. Blades adaxial surface dull; glabrous, or hairy. Blades adaxial surface hairs pilose, or strigose (if applicable); simple, unbranched. Blades abaxial surface glabrous, or hairy. Blades abaxial surface hairs sparse. Blades abaxial surface pilose, or strigose. Blades abaxial surface hairs white, or translucent hairs (if applicable). Blade margins with non-glandular hairs. Leaf apices acute.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems with leaves (usually 1–3 pairs of opposite linear leaves); hairy. Flowering stem hairs villous; simple. Flowering stems glandular hairs present. Flowering stem hairs white or translucent and transparent with red cross-walls. Flowers solitary; medium-sized, 5–15 mm in diameter or length, or large, more than 15 mm in diameter or length. Calyx sepals 5; fused; 10–18 mm long. Calyx green and purple; membranous with prominent ribs (ribs purple); bell-shaped (more or less inflated in flower and in fruit); 5-lobed; hairy; pilose, or villous. Calyx hairs glandular and non-glandular; transparent with red cross-walls (especially on the ribs). Calyx teeth equal or nearly so; 1.2–2 mm (with broad purple tinged membraneous margins). Petals free; same length as the calyx (or slightly longer); 5; purple, or white; oblanceolate; shallowly lobed; 10–18 mm long. Stamens 10; filaments glabrous. Anthers yellow; ellipsoid; 0.4–0.6 mm long. Gynoecia superior. Carpels syncarpous; 5. Ovaries ovate; glabrous. Styles 5; free; 2.5–3.5 mm long. Stigmas per style 1. Placentation free central. Ovules 15–30. Fruit with calyx persisting; dry; a capsule; ovoid; dehiscent; opening with teeth at the top of the capsule; teeth 10 (recurved). Fruit 10–15(–18) mm long; 4–6 mm wide; yellowish, or brown; surface appearing veinless. Seeds numerous; 1.4–2(–2.5) mm long (circular to angular); brown; with surfaces verrucose (with a flat wing about as broad as the body).
Chromosome information. 2n = 24. 24 (2x). - Holmen (1952 Greenland); Jørgensen et al. (1958 Greenland); Hedberg (1967 northern Canada); Johnson and Packer (1968 northwestern Alaska); Mulligan and Porsild in Löve (1970b); Zhukova and Petrovsky (1971 Wrangel Island); Zhukova and Tikhonova (1971 Chukotka); Zhukova et al. (1973 north eastern Asia); Packer and McPherson (1974 northern Alaska); Löve and Löve (1975b, 1982 arctic Canada). Ploidy levels recorded 2x.
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: circumpolar; Greenland, Canada, United States, Eurasia. Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories Islands, Continental Northwest Territories, Nunavut Islands, Continental Nunavut, Northern Québec. Arctic. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago widespread. Common. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Devon, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, Parry Islands, Cornwallis, Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, King William, Southampton, Coats (Salisbury, Stefansson, Putnam, Bylot, Prince Charles and Mill Islands).
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: wet meadows, hummocks, marshes, along streams, river terraces, lake shores (beach), tundra, slopes; imperfectly drained moist areas, or on seepage slopes, or moderately well drained areas; acidic, or calcareous; gravel, sand, silt, clay; with low organic content, or with high organic content.
Notes. The Silene uralensis/wahlbergella complex is
characterised by broad-winged seeds and comparatively little exserted petals.
Within the complex, we have one very widespread, arctic circumpolar entity and
several arctic-alpine, alpine, or boreal entities with much more restricted
ranges. Only the circumpolar entity is represented in the eastern Canadian
Arctic Archipelago.
The naming of the major parts of this aggregate depends
on how the relationship between the arctic circumpolar plant and the others is
interpreted as some of the alpine and arctic-alpine taxa were described earlier
than the arctic one (Elven et al. 2002). Since Bocquet (1969) and
Hultén (1971), the circumpolar plant has been identified with a northern
Russian plant originally described as Gastrolychnis uralensis Rupr.
Bocquet (1969) accepted a local subspecies in Svalbard, subsp.
arctica (based on var. arctica Th. Fr.). Petrovsky and Elven (in
Elven et al. 2002) have studied specimens and found the Svalbard plant
inseparable from the other northern arctic plants and the arctica name
therefore applicable to the major arctic circumpolar entity. These botanists
claim that the Ural plants (‘uralensis’) are very similar to
the Fennoscandian plants (‘apetala’) in general appearance
(calyx shape and petals that scarcely emerge), whereas the arctic circumpolar
plants differ appreciably in these features. However, there is a similarity in
indumentum characters between the Ural and the arctic plants and a difference
from the Fennoscandian ones. Petrovsky and Elven (in Elven et al. 2002)
noted that the Ural and the arctic entities are distinct even in areas where
they occur together (as in Vaigach Island, between the Russian mainland and
Novaya Zemlya) and suggested that the complex should be treated as two species,
one arctic and one boreal-alpine, the latter with two subspecies corresponding
to the Fennoscandian and the Ural plants, respectively. A new combination would
be needed for the arctic entity (e.g., S. arctica) whereas the
boreal-alpine entity should have the name S. uralensis. Alternatively,
they suggest that the complex could be treated as one species with three
subspecies. One solution would then be to accept the name of this species as
S. uralensis, with subsp. apetala (L.) Bocquet (Fennoscandian
plants), supsp. arctica (Th. Fr.) Bocquet (the circumpolar arctic
entity), and subsp. uralensis (Ural plants).
In Flora Nordica
(Jonsell 2001), Arto Kurtto treats the Fennoscandian plants as a distinct
species, S. wahlbergella, and the arctic plant as S. uralensis
(Rupr.) Bocquet. According to Elven and Petrovsky, this solution is sub-optimal.
As a preliminary solution, we are treating the plant occurring in the eastern
Canadian Arctic Archipelago as S. uralensis, including subsp.
arctica (Th. Fr.) Bocquet.
Morton, in the developing Flora North
America treatment, uses Silene uralensis (Rupr.) Bocquet subsp.
uralensis for the very widespread, arctic circumpolar entity within the
complex. He recognises three subspecies of S. uralensis in North America,
of which only subsp. uralensis is represented in the eastern Canadian
Arctic Archipelago. Subsp. porsildii Bocquet is an Alaskan endemic with
very large seeds that have a broad rugose wing. Subsp. ogilviensis (A.E.
Porsild) Brunton is rare in scattered localities across the low arctic and
characterised by its taller, more slender, and usually glabrous stems. The
populations extending through the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Utah have been
referred to as subsp. attenuata (Farr) McNeill, but according to Morton
the suggested differences are minor and the taxon is not worth recognition.
Illustrations. • Plant habitat. Growing in the river floodplain of calcareous gravel. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay, 79°53'N, 71°33'W. Aiken 98–009. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of plant. Note the very strongly inflated calyx, in the flowering stage almost hyaline between the veins, and the scarcely emergent pale violet petals. The plant named as Melandrium apetalum s. str. (= Silene wahlbergella) has less inflated calyx and not-emergent petals (cf the Linnaean species name); Silene uralensis s. str. has emergent petals but much less inflated calyx. Norway: Svalbard, Dickson Land, Odindalen Valley. Aug. 1996. Photo: R.Elven. Voucher in HbO. • Close-up of plant. Plants growing in the river floodplain of calcareous gravel. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay, 79°53'N, 71°33'W. Aiken 98–009. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of calyx. Bladder calyx with prominent ribs. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay, 79°53'N, 71°33'W. Aiken 98–009. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of plant. Plants growing in a sheltered gully. N.W.T., Banks Island, Sachs Harbour, 27 July 1981, J.M. Gillett 18859. • Close-up of plant. Plants growing in a sheltered gully. N.W.T., Banks Island, Sachs Harbour, 27 July 1981, J.M. Gillett 18859. • Plant habitat. Nunavut, Southampton Island, Salliq (Coral Harbour), rocky outcrop near Northern Store. 64°08'13"N, 83°09'53"W. Aiken and Brysting 01–066. CAN. • Close-up of plant. Nunavut, Southampton Island, Salliq (Coral Harbour), rocky outcrop near Northern Store. 64°08'13"N, 83°09'53"W. Aiken and Brysting 01–066. CAN. • Close-up of fruit. Nunavut, Southampton Island, Salliq (Coral Harbour), rocky outcrop near Northern Store. 64°08'13"N, 83°09'53"W. Aiken and Brysting 01–066. CAN. • Type specimen. Type of Lynchis neophila Polunin. Collected Mansfield Island, Hudsons Bay, R. Bell 2621, 30 Aug. 1884. CAN 54784. • Distribution map.
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).
