Oxyria digyna (L.) Hill
Mountain sorrel.
Polygonaceae, buckwheat family.
Hortus Kewensis 158. 1768.
Rumex digynus L. Sp. Pl. 337. 1753.
Type: Linnaeus, Lapland Herbarium 132 (LAPP) lectotype, selected by Jonsell & Jarvis, Nord. J. Bot. 14: 154.1994
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; 2–20 cm high; with a short caudex bearing clusters of long petioled reniform leaves. Caudex present. Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal, or vertical and often branched; rhizomatous; compact. Scales absent. Aerial stems erect; circular or oval in cross-section; glabrous. Leaves in a basal tuft; alternate; simple; existing for a single season or less. Stipules present; scale-like; 1–8 mm long; 3–6 mm wide; sheathing; brown. Stipules glabrous. Stipules apex acute. Petioles 2–50 mm long; glandular dots at the base of the leaf absent; glabrous, or hairy (check?). Sheaths persisting, or breaking down into fibres; forming a conspicuous build up at the base of the plant; brown; with the margins fused to the apex, or with the margins fused only in the lower part (?); glabrous. Leaf blade bases cordate. Blades 10–20 mm long; 10–20 mm wide. Blades leathery, or succulent; reniform. Blades adaxial surface glabrous. Blades abaxial surface not glaucous; glabrous. Leaf apices rounded. Leaflets veins inconspicuous.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems conspicuously taller than the leaves; with leaves (only one or two), or without leaves; glabrous (check?). Leaf or reduced bract closely associated with the base of the inflorescence present; reduced, or scale-like; shorter than the apex of the inflorescence; 1–3 mm long. Inflorescence paniculate; dense, or diffuse; lanceolate, or ellipsoid, or cylindrical; 2–7 cm long; 0.5–3 mm wide; not elongating as the fruit matures; main axis glabrous; main branches angle of divergence 30–60 degrees. Pedicels present. Pedicels bract leaves 1–2 mm long; 1.5–2 mm wide. Flowers per inflorescence 50–100; small, less than 5 mm in diameter or length. Calyx present (but is a single, petalloid perianth whorl of sepals that are often referred to as tepals). Calyx sepals 4; free; 1.5–2.5 mm long; 1.7–2 mm wide. Calyx red, or pink, or white or translucent (fading on herbarium specimens to brownish); glabrous. Petals absent. Stamens present and probably functional. Stamens 6; filaments glabrous. Anthers axis straight; 0.9–1.2 mm long. Gynoecia superior. Carpels syncarpous; 3. Styles 2; free; 0.2–0.4 mm long. Stigmas per style 1. Placentation basal. Ovules 1. Fruit with calyx persisting; dry; an achene; ovoid; distinctly flattened; indehiscent. Achenes ovoid.
Chromosome information. 2n = 14 and 42. 14 (2x).
- Edman (1929 northern Europe); Flovik (1940 Svalbard); Löve (1942b
northern Europe); Löve and Löve (1948 northern Europe,1956b Iceland,
1966); Sørensen and Westergaard in Löve and Löve (1948
Greenland); Knaben (1950 Norway); Böcher and Larsen (1950 Greenland);
Holmen (1952 Greenland); Jørgensen et al. (1958 Greenland); Sokolovskaya
and Strelkova (1960, 1962 northern Russia); Mooney and Billings (1961 North
America); Sorsa (1963b Finland); Packer (1964 western Canada); Zhukova (1965
eastern Chukotka, 1973 north eastern Asia, 1980 southern Chukotka, 1982 north
eastern Asia); Mosquin and Hayley (1966 northern Canada); Taylor and Brockman
(1966 western Canada); Johnson and Packer (1968 northwestern Alaska ); Taylor
and Mulligan (1968 western Canada); Mulligan and Porsild (1970 Canada); Mulligan
and Cody (1973 Yukon); Packer and McPherson (1974 northern Alaska); Dawe and
Murray (1979 Alaska); Zhukova and Petrovsky (1987a north and north eastern Asia;
Dalgaard (1988 western Greenland); Jonsell (2000 Norway, Finland, Svalbard,
secondary reference). Several more southern counts.
42 (6x). -
Sokolovskaya and Strelkova (1948a central Asia Altai); Belaeva and Siplivinsky
(1975 southern and northern Siberia); Krogulevich (1976, 1978 southern and
northern Siberia); Murin et al. (1982 central Asia. The hexaploids in southern
and northern Siberia and central Asia may belong to a different race. Ploidy
levels recorded 2x&6x.
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: circumpolar; Greenland, Canada. Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories Islands, Continental Northwest Territories, Nunavut Islands, Continental Nunavut, Northern Québec. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, Parry Islands (Bathurst, Prince Patrick), Cornwallis, Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, Somerset, King William, Southampton, Coats (Armund RInges, Ellef Ringnes, Loughead, Meighen, Sailibury).
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: hummocks, snow patches, slopes; on solifluction slopes, or moderately well drained areas.
Indigenous knowledge. The Inuit name for this species is
qungulit". According to the Iglulingmiut, these plants often grow where
birds nest (Dritsas 1986). They can ease stomach-aches caused by too much fat
intake. Because of their sour taste they are called seernaq in Greenland.
As the plants grow, they lose their tangy taste and become sweet. They taste
sweet after being boiled in water and can be used to treat those with low
energy. This brew was used to make people sweat. When the leaves are chewed for
a long time and the itsi is gone, they become difficult to swallow. The
juice is excellent for womeone who is sick because it makes you sweat (Ootoova
et al. 2001).
On St Lawrence Island in Alaska the sour leaves of the
qunguliit are used to satisfy thirst when there is not fresh water
available (Young and Hall, 1969).
When the leaves are consumed after meals,
they are an aid to digestion (Blondeau, 1996).
The succulent and slightly
acidic leaves are edible and eaten raw or cooked. It is an important edible
plant of the arctic owing to its wide distribution and local abundance. The
Inuit eat the leaves fresh or preserve them in seal oil. Caribou, muskoxen and
geese eat the leaves, and arctic hares and lemmings prefer the fleshy rhizomes
(Porsild and Cody 1980).
The Inuit use relatively few plants and this plant
is one of the most important. It is actively collected early summer and most
often eaten fresh, though some people preserve the leaves in seal oil.
Oxyria leaves also sort out and eaten by geese, musk oxen, and caribou.
The roots are eaten by lemmings, voles, and arctic hares (Burt, 2000).
Notes. Oxyria digyna is often deeply pigmented with abundant
anthocyanic red pigment. The amount of pigment (or its occurrence in colored
rather than leuco form) is genetically controlled in Oxyria digyna, in
which colour is rather constant, generally, within a clonal colony, but can vary
sharply between clones (Savile 1972).
Russell (1940) performed ecological
studies on arctic vegetation and found that Oxyria digyna and
Persicaria vivipara showed adequate carbon assimilation for increased
growth but that low temperature and low nitrogen supply curbed the growth rate.
Savile (1972) suggested that these restrictions halted growth soon enough to
ensure adequate seed production in the short summer.
Illustrations. • Plant in habitat. 6 miles west of Sachs Harbour, Banks Island, N.W.T. Plants growing in a gully on slumped soil, July 25, 1981, J.M. Gillett 18828. • Close-up of plant. Drawing by Mrs S. Bergh and Mrs L. Barstad based on a collection from Svalbard, Nathorst Land, Midterfjorden (Van Keulen Bay), øst for Hesselmanodden. 22 Jul. 1926. B. Lynge. O 207421. With permission of the Botanical Museum University of Oslo, Norway. • Close-up of fruit. Drawing by Mrs S. Bergh and Mrs L. Barstad based on a collection from Svalbard, Oscar ll Land, Kapp Boheman, Dryas-Cassiopetundra. 28 Aug. 1924. J. Lid. O 207454. With permission of the Botanical Museum University of Oslo, Norway. • Close-up of plant. Very early season plant with a few new green leaves and developing red inflorescences growing in Dryas mat. Grey "ghosts" of last years leaves persisting early season. N.W.T., Banks Island in Aulavik National Park, near green cabin, June 29, 1999. Aiken, SA99–006. CAN. • Close-up of inflorescence. Early season inflorescence coming into flower. N.W.T., Banks Island in Aulavik National Park, near green cabin, June 29, 1999. Aiken. SA99–006. CAN. • Plant in habitat. Albino plants growing in sand dune beside the Thomsen River. N.W.T., Banks Island in Aulavik National Park, 11 July, 1999. Aiken. SA99–044. CAN. Scale bar in cm. • Close-up of inflorescence. Albino inflorescence in bud. N.W.T., Banks Island in Aulavik National Park, 11 July, 1999. Aiken. SA99–044. CAN. • Close-up of inflorescence. Close-up of albino inflorescence with several flowers showing anthers. N.W.T., Banks Island in Aulavik National Park, 11 July, 1999. Aiken. SA99–044. CAN. • Close-up of inflorescence. 6 miles west of Sachs Harbour, Banks Island, N.W.T. Plants growing in a gully on slumped soil, July 25, 1981, J.M. Gillett 18828. • 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).
