Eriophorum scheuchzeri Hoppe
Cyperaceae, sedge family.
Bot. Taschenb. 1800: 104. 1800.
Eriophorum scheuchzeri Hoppe subsp. arcticum Novoselova, Bot. Zhurn. 79, 4: 112. 1994
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; (10–)15–25(–40) cm high; not caespitose; with thin creeping rootstock, culms usually solitary, soft and sparingly leafy at the base, "long" anthers, flowering head oblong in fruit. Roots pallid-brown. Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal (that are thin); rhizomatous, or stoloniferous (not always present on herbarium specimens); elongate. Scales present (on stolons). Aerial stems erect; not filiform (1.0–2.0 mm in diameter); circular or oval in cross-section; glabrous. Leaves in a basal tuft; alternate; simple. Petioles absent. Sheaths persisting (breaking down slowly); not forming a conspicuous build up at the base of the plant; greyish brown (pallid, or yellowish brown); with the margins fused to the apex; glabrous; collars absent. Ligules present; 0.5–1 mm long; membranous; glabrous; transversely oblong; apices obtuse; entire. Blades 30–80 mm long; 0.6–1(–2) mm wide. Blades appressed to the stem, or spreading; straight; linear (caniculate at the base, triangular towards the tip); flat, or folded; veins parallel; midvein similar in size to other veins in the leaf. Blades adaxial surface glabrous. Blades abaxial surface glabrous. Blade margins glabrous. Leaf apices acuminate.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems conspicuously taller than the leaves; with leaves, or without leaves (often there is a modified leaf that is mostly inflated sheath present); uppermost leaf arising below the middle of the stem; glabrous. Flowering culm nodes not exposed. Leaf or reduced bract closely associated with the base of the inflorescence absent. Inflorescence spicate; dense; oblong, or ovate (wider than higher); 1.5–3 cm long; 20–50 mm wide. Pedicels absent. Inflorescence a single spike. Individual spike(s) erect. Bisexual spike(s) with empty bracts at the base (2–6, sometimes enlarged with 3 veins, 0.4–1.2 cm long). Terminal spike with both sexes in each floret. Floral scales black, or pale grey (ovate-lanceolate); with margins paler than body of scale; acute; 4–10(–14) mm long; 1–2 mm wide (empty bracts up to 6 mm wide); glabrous. Perianth represented by bristles; bristles silky white, or translucent (up to 30 mm long, often at right angles or deflexed). Stamens 3. Anthers 0.5–1 mm long. Carpels syncarpous. Stipes 3 mm long. Styles 3. Placentation basal. Fruit not surrounded by a perigynium. Fruit surrounded by a perianth persisting as bristles; an achene (narrowly obovate). Fruit 1.9–2.1 mm long; golden brown. Achenes trigonous.
Chromosome information. 2n = 58. 58. - Flovik (1943 Svalbard); Sørensen and Westergaard in Löve and Löve (1948 Greenland?); Holmen (1952 Greenland); Löve and Löve (1956b Iceland); Jørgensen et al. (1958 Greenland); Mosquin and Hayley (1966 northern Canada, 2n = 58 58+2B); Löve and Ritchie (1966 central Canada); Zhukova (1968 north eastern Asia); Johnson and Packer (1968 northwestern Alaska ); Sokolovskaya (1970 north eastern Russia); Krogulevich (1971 Siberia); Zhukova and Tikhonova (1973 Chuk); Zhukova et al. (1973 north eastern Asia); Yurtsev and Zhukova (1978 E Chuk); Dawe and Murray (1979 Alaska); Löve and Löve (1981c northern Canada); Dalgaard (1988 western Greenland).
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: circumpolar; Greenland, Canada. 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, and Parry Islands (Bathurst, Melville, Prince Patrick), Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, Somerset, King William, and Southampton (and Ellef Ringnes), Coats (Mansel and Melville Peninsula).
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: wet meadows, around the margins of ponds, depressions of low centre polygons, marshes, along streams (on raised terraces above braided channels), river terraces, lake shores; aquatic, or imperfectly drained moist areas; indifferent; sand, silt; with low organic content (bare sand), or with high organic content. Habitats: often in shallow water by the edge of ponds where the plants may form dense stands that are almost mono-cultures. Also found in wet meadows with Carex, or in marshes as emergents with Pleuropogon sabinei. Commonly grazed by musk oxen.
Indigenous knowledge. Inuit names, pualunnguat used in South Baffin means "imitation mittens". Kumaksiutinnguat, the name in the Kinngait, means "an imitation object to remove lice". Kanguujat the term used in North Baffin means, "what looks like snow geese", a field of them looks similar to snow geese that have just landed. They are used for lamp wick, sometimes mixed with moss. According to Tununirmiut, they can be used alone for lamp wicks but they are not the first choice for a wick because they crush easily. In Western Alaska (Oswalt, 1957) the stems were sometimes gathered during the summer, dried, and used for boot insoles. Fresh shoots can be eaten and they taste sweet when chewed. Pualunnguat can be used as swabs. Pualunnguat mixed with rancid seal fat can be used to relieve aches and pains.
Notes. Polunin (1940) commented that this species varies so much in
the length of the anthers and the width of the white margin to the involucral
scales that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish from specimens of the
generally more slender E. russeolum. The shape of the head is apt to be
misleading for it, and indeed the whole appearance of the pappus, may become
changed after some days of exposure to wind, rain, and snow. Fernald (1905,
p.82) gives the length of the anther as 1 mm in E. scheuchzeri and
1.5–3 mm in E. russeolum and this allow us to separate the vast
majority of specimens. There remained some intermediate specimens, having
anthers 1.2–1.5 mm long and these are the hybrid E. russeolum X
E. scheuchzeri which is known by the name E. x medium in northern
Europe.
Elven et al (2003) noted that two subspecies have been recognized
and indicated that subsp. arcticum differs from subsp. scheuchzeri
in: slightly smaller size ((5-)7–20 vs 8–30 cm); thinner culms
((0.7-)1.1–1.2(-2) vs (1-)1,2–1.5(-2) mm); spherical vs half-spherical
flowering spikelets; outermost scales lanceolate or rarely widely lanceolate,
0.6–0.9 cm long, with white margins, often yellowish near the apex (not
widely lanceolate, rarely ovoid, 0.9–1 cm long, very rarely with narrow
white margins); outer scales lanceolate, long-pointed, black or dark grey with
pale margins, usually with at least some red stripes of pigmented cells (not
narrowly-lanceolate, very long-pointed, brownish-grey, with narrow pale margins,
and with numerous red stripes).
Subspecies have not been distinguished among
plants occuring in North America.
Illustrations. • Plants in habitat. Plants growing beside a pond. N.W.T., Banks Island, Sachs River delta, near Sachs Harbour, July 28, 1981. J.M. Gillett 18906, CAN. • Plants in habitat. Cotton-grass meadow. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Apex, CAN. • Plants in habitat. Dominant species in a small area of a sedge meadow. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park. 11 July, 1999. Aiken 99–061, CAN. • Plants with inflorescences. Plants showing spaced inflorescences that are arising from rhizomes. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park. 11 July, 1999. Aiken 99–061, CAN. • Close-up of inflorescence. Close-up of a single plant showing solitary spike. N.W.T., Banks Island, Sachs River delta, near Sachs Harbour, July 28, 1981. J.M. Gillett 18906, CAN. • Close-up of inflorescence. Close-up of a single spike approximately 2 cm high. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park. 11 July, 1999. Aiken 99–061, CAN. • Close-up of inflorescence. Close-up of a single spike approximately 2 cm high with anthers less than 1 mm long caught in the bristles. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park. 11 July, 1999. Aiken 99–061, CAN. • Close-up of plant. Note well developed rhizomes, peduncle with no leaves in the upper half, and a single inflorescence spike. Drawing by Mrs S. Bergh and Mrs L. Barstad based on a Svalvard: Oscar II Land: Kapp Boheman ved Pleuropogon, near Signalet J. Lid, 27 Aug. 1924. O. With permission of the Botanical Museum University of Oslo, Norway. • 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).
