Polemonium boreale Adams
Jacob's Ladder.
Polemoniaceae, Polemonium family.
Mém. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 5: 92. 1817.
Polemoniu. hyperboreum Tolm., Feddes Repert. 23, 18–25: 273.
1927.
Polemonium. pulcherrimum Hook. subsp. hyperboreum
(Tolm.) Á.Löve & D.Löve, Bot. Not. 128: 517. 1975
?P. hyperboreum Tolm., Feddes Repert. 23, 18–25: 273. 1927.
?Polemonium boreale Adams subsp. hyperboreum (Tolm.) Á.
Löve and D. Löve
Polemonium boreale subsp.richardsonii (Graham) J.P. Anders.
Polelmonium boreale var. villosissimun Hultén
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; 10–15(–20) cm high; low, loosely tufted plants with compound leaves that have 6–10 pairs of leaflets and rotate blue flowers; glandular viscid. Taproot absent. Caudex absent. Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal, or vertical and often branched (branching); rhizomatous; elongate; 0.5–2 mm wide. Aerial stems erect, or ascending; with glandular hairs; densely hairy; stem hairs spreading, or erect. Leaves in a basal tuft; alternate; compound; existing for a single season or less. Stipules absent (base of petiole swollen with a pulvinus area that may be purple). Petioles 0.5–2.5(–3.5) mm long; winged (at the base); hairy; woolly; hairs less than the diameter of the petiole. Petioles hairs spreading, or erect; floccose; smooth. Blades 20–55 mm long; 6–16(–18) mm wide. Blades spreading; appearing single-veined. Blades adaxial surface glabrous. Blades abaxial surface glabrous. Blade margins entire; with marginal glands; with glandular hairs. Leaf apices acute. Leaflet arrangement pinnate. Leaflets (4–)6–10(–12); 4–12 mm long; 1.5–4 mm wide; elliptic. Leaflets veins inconspicuous. Apical leaflet base not distinctly stipitate.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems with leaves; hairy. Flowering stem hairs woolly. Flowering stems glandular hairs present. Flowering stem hairs white or translucent. Inflorescence cymose; dense; globose or subglobose; 2–4 cm long; 20–40 mm wide. Pedicels present (but short); with glandular hairs. Flowers per inflorescence 3–7(–9); medium-sized, 5–15 mm in diameter or length, or large, more than 15 mm in diameter or length; actinomorphic. Calyx sepals 5; fused; 5–7 mm long. Calyx green; tubular; 5-lobed; hairy; woolly. Calyx hairs glandular; white or translucent. Petals fused; 5; purple, or blue (on the lobes), or yellow (on the tubular base); 15–18 mm long. Corolla rotate; 5-lobed (convolute in bud). Stamens 5 (alternate with the corolla lobes); fused to the corolla (and attached at different levels); filaments glabrous. Anthers yellow; stout-cylindrical; 2.8–3.2 mm long. Nectaries present (as a disc around the base of the ovary). Gynoecia superior. Carpels syncarpous; 3. Ovaries ovate, or subglobose; glabrous. Styles 1; (7–)8–10 mm long. Styles straight. Stigmas per style 3; strap-like lobes; lobes 1.4–1.6 mm long. Placentation axile. Ovules numerous. Fruit sessile; stalk 2–5 mm long. Fruit with calyx persisting; dry; a capsule; ovoid; not distinctly flattened; dehiscent; splitting to the base into separate segments; teeth 3. Fruit 4.8–5.2 mm long; yellowish; glabrous; surface venation ribbed. Seeds numerous; 0.1–0.2 mm long; black (dark brown); with surfaces spinose.
Chromosome information. 2n = 18. Flovik (1940); Sokolovskaya and Strelkova (1960 northern Russia); Zhukova (1965b Wrangel Island, 1966 north eastern Asia); Laane (1966, 1969b northern Norway); Johnson and Packer (1968 northwestern Alaska ); Zhukova and Petrovsky (1976 western Chukotka, 1987a north and north eastern Asia; Krogulevich (1976 northern Siberia, as P. boreale and P. hyperboreum, 1984 Siberia); Dawe and Murray (1979 central Alaska, for subsp. villosissimum); Petrovsky and Zhukova (1981 Wrangel Island); Lavrenko et al. (1989 northern Russia). Several more southern counts. Supposed basic chromosome number of family 2x.
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: circumpolar (with large gaps); Greenland, Canada, United States, Eurasia. Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories Islands, Continental Northwest Territories. Low arctic. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago limited. Uncommon. Arctic Islands: Parry Islands (Prince Patrick and Eglinton), Banks.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: river terraces, slopes, flood plains; dry, or moderately well drained areas (very often on scree slopes and bird manured outcrops); calcareous, or nitrophilous; gravel, sand (disturbed site); with low organic content. Habitats: calcareous, gravelly places, often near animal burrows (Porsild 1957); grassy places below sea-gull cliff (CAN 128075); open vegetation on calcareous stony, frost-heaved clay (CAN 220042); exposed saxifrage slope (CAN 535565); Dryas solifliction slope (CAN 535548); Salix slope (CAN 535599); boulder ridges and stream bed (CAN 220043).
Notes. The 'hyperboreum' taxon is synonymised with P.
boreale by Tzvelev in Fl. Arct. URSS 8 but separated as a subsp.
hyperboreum of P. pulcherrimum by Löve and Löve (1975)
and as a separate species by Hultén (1968).
Löve and Löve
(1975) accepted two subspecies of P. boreale (excluding
'hyperboreum'); the second is subsp. humile (Willd.)
Á.Löve & D.Löve (1976), Bot. Not. 128: 517 [basionym: P.
humile Willd. ex Roem. & Schult. (1819), Syst. Veg. 4: 792, non Salisb.
(1796), Prodr. 125], said to be "the northern Siberian race of the species", and
also given with 2n = 18 (Matveeva & Tikhonova in Bolkhovskikh et al. 1969,
Zhukova and Petrovsky 1976 western Chukotka, Zhukova et al. 1977a north eastern
Asia). (Elven)
The names 'hyperboreum' and 'humile' are
synonyms of P. boreale. (Petrovsky personal communication May 2000)).
Illustrations. • Habitat. Plants with purple-blue flowers, near the scale bar. The magenta coloured flowers are Hedysarum boreale. N.W.T., Banks Island, sand dunes beside the Thomsen River Aulavik National Park. 9 July, 1999. Aiken 99–037. CAN. Scale bar in cm. • Close-up of plants. Plants about 6 cm high growing in sand dunes. Note the pinnate, compound leaves, the dense hairs on the calyx seen in the bud centre, the petals convolute in bud (to the right) and petals that are convolute in bud. N.W.T., Banks Island, sand dunes beside the Thomsen River, Banks Island, Aulavik National Park. 9 July, 1999. Aiken 99–037. CAN. Scale bar in cm. • Close-up of plant. Plant in S-facing dry and warm slope. Norway: Svalbard, Gipsvika. July 1997. Photographed by R.Elven. • Close up of flowers. Note darker guidelines on the purple-blue petals that are yellow at the base where they are fused into a tube, yellow anthers, the filaments of which are attached to the petals, and in lower flower, the stigma with three branches. Aiken 99–037. CAN. • Close up of flowers. Note darker guidelines on the purple-blue petals that are yellow at the base where they are fused into a tube, yellow anthers, the filaments of which are attached to the petals, and in lower flower, the stigma with three branches. Aiken 99–037. CAN. • Close-up of flowers. Showing sepals. Norway: Finnmark, Bugoynes. July 1981. Photographed by R.Elven.
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).
