Montia fontana L.
Arctic purslane.
Portulaceae.
Sp. Pl. 87.1753
Montia lamprosperma Cham., Linnaea 6: 564.1831
Type: Northern Sweden. Linnaean Lapland Herbarium 57 (LAPP) lectotype, selected by Jonsell & Jarvis, Regnum Veg. 127: 67. 1993
Claytonia fontana (L.) R.J. Davis
Montia dipetala Suksdorf
Montia fontana subsp. amporitana auct. non Sennen
Montia fontana var. lamprosperma (Cham.) Fenzl
Montia
fontana var. tenerrima (Gray) Fern. and Wieg.
Montia
hallii (Gray) Greene
Montia lamprosperma Cham.
Vegetative morphology. Plants dwarf shrubs; 1–5 cm high (in Arctic Island specimens, to 15 cm high Manitoba and Alaskan collections); small, pale-green or yellowish, somewhat succulent. Taproot present (but poorly developed). Aerial stems erect, or prostrate (stems weak, often prostrate when plants grow on soft substrates); not conspicuously jointed; glabrous. Leaves opposite; simple. Petioles absent (usually), or present (sometimes on the lower leaves); 0.1–2 mm long. Leaf blade bases attenuate. Blades 3–10(–15) mm long; 1–3 mm wide. Blades succulent (slightly), or membranous; ovate, or oblanceolate; flat; appearing single-veined, or with inconspicuous veins. Blades adaxial surface glabrous. Blades abaxial surface glabrous. Blade margins entire. Leaf apices rounded.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems without leaves; glabrous. Flowers solitary (rarely in tiny plants), or in inflorescences. Inflorescence cymose (if applicable: in larger specimens); diffuse (flowers may appear to be in pairs, often at the tips of the stem, often on conspicuous pedicels). Pedicels present; glabrous. Flowers per inflorescence 1–3(–6); small, less than 5 mm in diameter or length (inconspicuous); zygomorphic (slightly). Perianth present. Calyx sepals 2; free; 1–1.5 mm long; 1.8–2.4 mm wide. Calyx green; herbaceous, or fleshy (slightly); glabrous. Petals free; 3; green (drying pale, creamy); obovate; unlobed (sometimes rolling inwards to form tube-like structures); 1–1.5 mm long; 0.5–0.6 mm wide. Stamens present and probably functional. Stamens 3; free of the corolla. Anthers 0.2–0.3 mm long. Gynoecia superior. Carpels syncarpous; 3. Ovaries subglobose; glabrous. Styles present (short); 3 (with each lobe forked); partially fused. Placentation basal (with a single ovule), or free central (in the family, but reduced to a single ovule in this genus and appearing basal). Ovules 1. Fruit dry; a capsule; spherical; dehiscent. Fruit 1–1.5 mm long; 0.8–1 mm wide; black (the colour coming from the seeds as the ripe fruit wall is membranous, pale green, and easily split). Seeds 1–3; 0.9–1.1 mm long; black, or brown; with surfaces smooth (but with rows of lenticular markings. Seeds characteristic of the family. Embryo peripheral and more or less curved around a starchy centre).
Chromosome information. 2n = 18 and 20. 18 (2x, x
= 9). - Hagerup (1941b northern Europe); Löve and Löve (1948 northern
Europe); Moore (1963b); Veselukhina (1976 eastern Chukotka).
20
(2x, x = 10). - Jørgensen et al. (1958 Greenland);
Lövkvist in Weimarck (1963 Sweden); Moore (1963); Nilsson (1966 Alaska, two
counts); Zhukova (1966 north eastern Asia); Johnson and Packer (1968
northwestern Alaska ); Löve (1970a Iceland); Zhukova (1982 north eastern
Asia); Dalgaard (1989 western Greenland). Several more southern counts.
The
count of 18 is considered suspicious (Yurtsev 2001, personal communication).
Supposed basic chromosome number of family 9/10. 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 Islands: Baffin and Victoria (This species of tiny plants may be under collected).
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: wet meadows, around the margins of ponds; imperfectly drained moist areas, or on seepage slopes; moss. Habitats: in wet springy places among mosses, along brooks, or among tall sedges and grasses by the edge of stagnant and muddy pools, less commonly in open places in wet sand or mud when stems become prostrate and somewhat tufted.
Notes. Montia it the only representative of this family in the eastern Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It may be more wide spread, and should be looked for at early Hudson Bay trading post sites as it was found growing in damp mud near the shore at the Ward Inlet site on Frobisher Bay.The reasons for treating M. lamprosperma Cham. [described from Alaska: Unalaska] as a synonym of M. fontana L. were presented by Moore (1963), Bot. Not. 116: 16–30, and confirmed by the monographic studies of Nilsson (1967).
Illustrations. • Habitat of the plant. Tiny plants, less than two cm. high at the positions of the markers. Green plants with the scale bar in cm; red plants with the collection number bar. Nunavut, Southhampton Island, Coral Harbour Island. Aiken and Brysting, 01–074. CAN. • Close-up of plant. Close-up of red plants in the habitat picture. Note small white flowers and red leaves that possibly result from more salinity in the habitat. Nunavut, Southhampton Island, Coral Harbour Island. Aiken and Brysting, 01–074. CAN. • Close-up of plant. Close-up of green plants in the habitat picture. Note small white flowers and red leaves that possibly result from less salinity in the habita either from fresh seepage or a snow patch. Nunavut, Southhampton Island, Coral Harbour Island. Aiken and Brysting, 01–074. CAN. • Close-up of plant. Close-up of green plants in the habitat picture. Note small fruit developing and somewhat succulent leaves. Nunavut, Southhampton Island, Coral Harbour Island. Aiken and Brysting, 01–074. CAN. • 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).
