Festuca viviparoidea Krajina ex Pavlick s.l.
Poaceae, grass family.
In Can. J. Bot. 62: 2454. 1984.
F. vivipara subsp. glabra Frederiksen, Nord J. Bot. 1: 288. 1985.
Type: Greenland, Jameson Land, Gurreholm, 14 VIII. 1958, Holmen 807. (Holotype C, Isotype O! Numerous chromosomatum huius populationis 2n=56).
F. ovina var. vivipara L. pro parte. Sp. Pl. ed. 2, 1: 108.
1762.
F. brevifolia R. Br. var. arctica Saint-Yves subv.
genuina f. vivipara Saint-Yves, Candollea 2: 253–254. 1925.
Type: Greenland. Arakamtchetchem, Herb U.S.N. Pacif. Expl. Exp. 1853–56,
leg. Wright. (Holotype: P).
F. brachyphylla f. vivipara
Skvorcov. Fl. Arct. URSS, 222–223. 1964, nom. nud.
F.
×viviparoidea Krajina, Biota N. Amer. 2: 342. 1980, nom. nud.
F. viviparoidea subsp. krajinae Pavlick, Can. J. Bot. 62:
2457. 1984. Type: British Columbia, Liard River Basin, Fairy Lake, 26 July 1977,
Argus and Haber 9987. (Holotype V! Isotypeastern Canada!).
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; 11–28 cm high (bluish grey-green); caespitose. Ground-level or under-ground stems not developed horizontally or vertically. Aerial stems erect; circular or oval in cross-section; glabrous (Canadian specimens), or sparsely hairy (Greenland specimens). Leaves in a basal tuft; alternate; simple; marcescent. Prophylls 10–20 mm long; with hairy veins; with pronounced keels. Petioles absent. Sheaths with the margins fused only in the lower part; glabrous, or with trichomes (that are minute); hirsute; collars present. Ligules present; 0.2–0.5 mm long; membranous; hairy; transversely oblong; apices acute; erose and cleft. Blades 30–120 mm long; 0.35–0.75 mm wide (when folded, with limited sclerenchyma strands seen in leaf cross sections that are similar to those of F. brachyphylla and unlike those of F. ovina). Blades spreading; folded in bud (with margins inrolled and sometimes overlapping); linear; without auricles; involute; veins parallel; midvein similar in size to other veins in the leaf (usually 3 larger veins, 2–4 smaller veins). Blades adaxial surface glabrous, or hairy. Blades abaxial surface hairy.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems hairy. Flowering culm nodes not exposed, or becoming exposed; number visible 0–1. Flag leaf sheaths not inflated. Inflorescence paniculate; dense; linear; 1–3 cm long; 5–15 mm wide; main axis scabrous. Number of inflorescence branches at lowest node 0–1 (smaller inflorescences have a single spikelet per rachis node). Inflorescence primary branches 0.2–0.6 mm long; scabrous; with appressed secondary branches. Spikelets pedicellate (characteristically proliferating); disarticulating above the glumes; laterally compressed; lanceolate; 7–15 mm long (or longer, including the vegetative proliferation); 2–3 mm wide. Florets per spikelet 2–3. Glumes unequal. First glume 0.7–0.8 × the length of the second glume; 0.3–0.45 × spikelet length; 3–4 mm long; lanceolate; glabrous, or with trichomes (hairs at the apex only); margins ciliate; veins 1; apex acuminate. Second glume 0.4–0.9 × as long as the spikelet; almost as long as, or longer than, the lowest floret; lanceolate; 3.6–6 mm long; glabrous, or with trichomes (scabrous at apex only); veins 3. Rachilla internode 0.1–0.3 mm long. Rachilla not pronounced between the florets; terminating in a vestigial floret (or terminating in a vegetatively proliferating floret). Lemma 3.6–6 mm long; lanceolate; keeled (more pronounced as lemma structure becomes leaf-like in vegetative proliferation); surface dull (deep purple); surface sparsely scabrous; surface with trichomes on and between the veins; veins 5. Lemma apex acuminate; entire; glabrous; awnless, or awned (often awnless in proliferating spikelets). Awn arising from the tip; 0.1–0.3 mm long. Palea vestigial, or absent (rarely formed). Perianth reduced to lodicules. Stamens 3. Anthers 2 mm long (when present). Gynoecia superior. Carpels syncarpous; 3. Styles 2. Ovules 1. Fruit sessile. Fruit dry; a caryopsis; indehiscent. Seeds 1.
Chromosome information. 2n = 28, 49, 56, 63. (1) 28
(4x). - Tzvelev's draft.
(2) 49 (7x). - ?Flovik (1938 Sb);
Frederiksen (1981Greenland).
(3) 56 (8x). - Johnson and Packer
(1968 northwestern Alaska, as F. vivipara); Frederiksen (1981 northern
Alaska).
(4) c. 63 (9x). - Holmen (1964 Ala, three counts).
Distribution. Arctic Islands: Ellesmere.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: hummocks, tundra, slopes; imperfectly drained moist areas; gravel (and turf). Habitats: Occurring in tundra turf, gravel, and moist herb mats. Reported from Northern Ellesmere Island. The limited records are of plants with spikelets that are beginning to vegetatively proliferate. Except in this character they cannot be distinguished from specimens of either Festuca baffinensis or F. brachyphylla.
Taxon as an environmental indicator. The phenomenon of vegetative proliferation in grasses has been observed to be a response of plants to environmental stresses such as over-watering or over-fertilising in greenhouse conditions. If further collections of this taxon are made in the High Arctic, very thorough habitat notes would be relevant. It is possible that the collections to date are vegetatively proliferating plants of either F. brachyphylla or F. baffinensis, growing under environmentally stressful conditions on Northern Ellesmere Island but there has been limited material on which to base this conclusion. Festuca rubra proliferates in cold, damp sites along the North American east coast, and it is possible that the colder, harsher conditions on Northern Ellesmere trigger the proliferation found in plants called F. viviparoidea.
Notes. Porsild (1964) mentions F. vivipara (L.) Sm. noting that
the eastern Canadian specimens are similar to F. baffinensis and F.
brachyphylla, but the panicle is always proliferous. Frederiksen (1981)
stated that "According to a handwritten note by Holmen, the chromosome number
given for Plantae Vasculares Groenlandicae Exsiccatae nr. 22 belongs to the
above-mentioned holotype. The number 2n = 56 was published (Holmen and
Laegaard 1960), but re-examination shows 2n = 49 to be correct, and as
far as I know no other numbers have been known from Greenland. . . 2n =
56 was found in material from Alaska and Wrangel Island.
This species has
very often been connected with F. brachyphylla, and morphologically it
looks very much like this species. In the few cases where anthers were observed,
they were about 2 mm. As F. brachyphylla is very distinct on account of
its very short anthers, rarely if ever exceeding 1.2 mm (Frederiksen 1977), and
as F. brachyphylla has the leaf sheaths partly split while they are
always open in F. vivipara, no close connection seems to exist between
these two taxa. On the other hand F. vivipara subsp. glabra in
nearly all examined characters seems isolated from the two other subspecies;
thus it possibly has another origin." Alexeev (1985) published leaf cross
sections of this taxon. He elevated F. vivipara subsp. hirsuta to
F. frederikseniae E.B. Alexeev.
A specimen at CAN that was annotated
by Signe Frederiksen in 1987, was collected on Ellesmere Island, Lower Dumbell
Lake (water supply lake for Alert) growing in moist herbmat C.R. Harrington
201, August 18, 1959. An extensive search in 1992 to find the voucher for
the mapped record from Ellesmere Island, Judge Daily Promitory (Frederiksen
1981) was unsuccessful. the eastern Canada specimen from the eastern Canadian
Arctic may be an F. baffinensis × F. brachyphylla hybrid. The plants
have very young inflorescences with few definitive characteristics.
Illustrations. • Distribution map.
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).
