Armeria scabra Pall. ex Roem. & Schult.
Arctic thrift, sea pink.
Plumbaginaceae, leadwort family.
Syst. Veg. 6: 776. 1820.
Armeria labradorica Wallr. Beitr. Bot. 2: 185. 1844.
Armeria
labradorica var. submutica (Blake) H.F. Lewis, Lunds. Univ.
Årsskr., n. f., avd. 2, 44, 1: 1296. 1948.
Armeria sibirica
Turcz. ex Boiss. in DC., Prodr. 12: 678. 1848.
Armeria. maritima
(Mill.) Willd. subsp. arctica (Cham.) Hultén (1948), Lunds. Univ.
Årsskr., n. f., avd. 2, 44, 1: 1295. 1948.
Armeria vulgaris
Willd. f. arctica Cham. (1831), Linnaea 6: 566. 1831 pro parte.
Armeria maritima (Mill.) Willd. subsp. labradorica (Wallr.)
Hultén,
Armeria maritima var. labradorica (Wallr.)
G.H.M. Lawrence
Armeria maritima var. sibirica (Turcz. ex
Boiss) G.H.M. Lawrence
Armeria scabra Pallas subsp. sibirica
(Turcz. ex Boiss) Hyl
Vegetative morphology. Plants 5–20(–30) cm high; caespitose; with short, grass-like leaves. Taproot present. Caudex present. Aerial stems erect; glabrous, or densely hairy. Leaves in a basal tuft; alternate; simple; evergreen. Petioles absent. Ligules absent. Blades 50–100 mm long; 1–1.5(–2.5) mm wide (wider at the sheathing base). Blades linear; flat, or involute (slightly); with inconspicuous veins. Blades adaxial surface glabrous. Blades abaxial surface glabrous. Leaf apices acuminate.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems conspicuously taller than the leaves; without leaves; hairy. Inflorescence cymose, or head-like; dense; globose or subglobose; 1–2 cm long; 1.5–2.5 mm wide. Pedicels absent. Involucral bracts present; number of rows 2. Outer involucral bracts blade surface flat; mostly green (with a wide hyaline margin); obovate; glabrous; 4.5–5.5 mm high (sheathing involucral scale surrounding the flowering stalk may be longer); 3–4 mm wide (individual bracts). Flowers per inflorescence 30–50; medium-sized, 5–15 mm in diameter or length (individual flowers), or large, more than 15 mm in diameter or length (infloresence 15–25 mm in diameter). Calyx sepals 5; fused; 3–4 mm long (at anthesis). Calyx green, or white or translucent; herbaceous (in flower), or scarious (in fruit); accrescent; funnel-form; 5-lobed (lobes apiculate, between the lobes, fluted); hairy (on all the surface of the calyx in this subspecies). Calyx hairs white or translucent. Petals free; longer than the calyx (at anthesis); 5; red (in bud), or pink (in flower); spatulate; 7–9 mm long; 3–3.5 mm wide (at the apex, 0.5–0.6 mm at the base). Stamens 5; fused to the corolla (at the base); filaments glabrous. Anthers ellipsoid; 1–1.5 mm long. Gynoecia superior. Carpels syncarpous; 5. Ovaries subglobose; glabrous. Styles 5; 4.5–5.5 mm long. Stigmas per style 1. Placentation basal. Ovules 1. Fruit with calyx persisting (as a membranous funnel that aids seed dispersal by wind); dry; a nut; ovoid; indehiscent. Fruit 1–1.2 mm long; 0.4–0.6 mm wide (rare in Arctic samples); brown. Seeds 1; mature seeds not found in N.W.T. samples.
Chromosome information. 2n = 18. Phillips (1938, 'arctica', 'labradorica', 'sibirica' and 'beringensis'); Sugiura (1941, 1944, 'arctica', 'scabra' and 'beringensis'); Sørensen and Westergaard in Löve and Löve (1948 Greenland, 'scabra'); Jørgensen et al. (1958 Greenland, 'scabra'); Sokolovskaya and Strelkova (1960, 'arctica'); Zhukova (1966 north eastern Asia, 'arctica'); Hedberg (1967 northern Canada, 'labradorica'); Delay and Coustaud (1968, 'labradorica' and 'arctica', 1969, 'sibirica'); Johnson and Packer (1968 northwestern Alaska , 'sibirica'); Matveeva and Tikhonova in Bolkhovskikh et al. (1969, 'sibirica'); Engelskjøn and Knaben (1971 northern Norway, 'sibirica'); Packer and McPherson (1974 northern Alaska, 'maritima' coll.); Krogulevich (1976, 1984 Siberia, 'scabra'); Dawe and Murray (1980 Alaska, 'arctica'); Zhukova (1980 S Chuk, 'arctica'); Löve and Löve (1982a central Canada, 'sibirica'); Kovanda (1983, 'scabra'); Zhukova and Petrovsky (1987a north eastern Asia); Dalgaard (1989 western Greenland, 'sibirica'). Ploidy levels recorded 2x.
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: circumpolar (nearly); Greenland, Canada, United States, Eurasia. Arctic. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago widespread. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Devon, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, Somerset, Southampton.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: river terraces, lake shores (on sandy beaches, dunes), lake shores, slopes, seashores (on Dryas hillsides); dry, or moderately well drained areas; calcareous; gravel, sand, silt, clay; with low organic content.
Indigenous knowledge. When a group of Inuit women at Iqaluit, Baffin Island Nunavut were asked what they called this plant they spontaneously replied, "Carnation". Judith Farrow who reported the incident (in 1986) was sure that they had equated the flowers of sea pink with the drawings on the familiar cans of Carnation milk.
Notes. Horticultural varieties of this species are sold as a garden perennial in southern Canada. It is potentially a good plant to buy for gardens in areas where it occurs naturally at the same latitudes and is an attractive and native species to the North where it would be expected to thrive in sandy, sundy areas, for example in gardens around Iqalui. Armeria is a more difficult species to transplant from local areas as it has a long tap root that is easily damaged if the plant is dug up from compact tundra.
Illustrations. • Plant in habitat. Plants growing in sand dunes beside the Thomsen River. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park. Aiken 99–226. CAN. • Close-up of bud. Bud at ground level among the linear basal leaves. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Soper River Valley. Aiken and Isles. 2002. No voucher. • Close-up of plant. Plants growing in sand dunes. Flowering heads composed of many individual flowers in bud, are vivid red. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park 10 July, 1999, Aiken 99–226. CAN. • Close-up of plant. Close-up of plants with late flowering heads that have faded pale pink and grey-pink heads that are going to seed. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Iqaluit Susan Aiken, no voucher. Late August 1997. • Close-up of fruit. Close-up of inflorescences that have gone to seed. The calyx of the many individual flowers is scarious and stiff around the fruit that are not visible. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Iqaluit Aiken, no voucher 1997. • 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).
