Pedicularis langsdorffii Fisch. ex Steven
Arctic fernweed.
Scrophulariaceae, fernweed family.
Mém. Soc. Naturalistes Moscou, 6: 49. 1823.
Pediculoaris arctica R. Br. Chlor. Melvill. 22. 1823.
Pedicularis langsdorffii Fisch. ex Steven var. arctica (R.
Br.) Polunin, Bull. Natl. Mus. Can. 92, Biol. Ser. 24: 333. 1940.
Pedicularis langsdorffii Fisch. ex Steven subsp. arctica (R.
Br.) Pennell ex Hultén, Ark. Bot., ser. 2, 7, 1: 122. 1968.
Pedicularis purpurascens Cham. ex Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 2: 781. 1825.
Pedicularis langsdorffii Fisch. ex Steven var. purpurascens
(Cham. ex Spreng.) Ivanina in Tolm. and Jurtz., Fl. Arct. URSS, 8: 307. 1980.
Type: Described from Alaska: Unalaska and St. Lawrence I
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; (5–)8–15(–20) cm high; tufted with a pale yellow taproot, one to several stems, and showy bright pink flowers with a prominently arched helmet. Taproot present (pale yellow, and branching). Caudex present (short and thick). Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal. Aerial stems erect; glabrous (essentially), or sparsely hairy (when elongate in flowering); stem hairs appressed (if applicable). Leaves heterophyllous; distributed along the stems (and with a basal tuft of fern-like leaves); alternate; simple (pinnately divided); existing for a single season or less. Petioles present (basal leaves), or absent (stem leaves; the broad, basal, leaf rachis, without blade lamina may be petiole-like); 0.5–10 mm long; winged (on stem leaves), or unwinged (on basal leaves); glabrous. Leaf blade bases truncate. Blades 6–18 mm long; 3–5 mm wide. Blades spreading; lanceolate, or obovate (pinnately lobed into 10–20 divisions); veins pinnate. Blades adaxial surface glabrous. Blades abaxial surface glabrous. Blade margins lobed (when divisions are small), or cut into linear divisions. Blade margins entire, or crenate, or dentate (on the margins of the leaf divisions); with teeth toward the apex (of each leaf division). Leaf apices acute.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems with leaves; glabrous (almost), or hairy. Flowering stem hairs woolly (if applicable); simple; longer than the diameter of the flowering stem; white or translucent. Inflorescence spicate; terminal; dense; globose or subglobose (in bud), or oblong (loose and show in flower); (2–)3–6(–10) cm long; 20–40 mm wide; elongating as the fruit matures. Flowers per inflorescence 10–30; large, more than 15 mm in diameter or length; zygomorphic. Calyx sepals 5; fused; 8.7–9.3 mm long. Calyx green, or purple; accrescent (slightly); bilabiate; 5-lobed; hairy; woolly. Calyx hairs white or translucent. Calyx margins without cilia. Petals fused; 5; pink (a bright pink); with contrasting markings (helmet petals a deeper pink than the landing petals); 23–26 mm long (helmet petals 3.3–4 mm wide at the peak of the strongly arched hood). Corolla bilabiate; 5-lobed. Corolla helmet not prolonged into a long beak. Corolla helmet with 2 small teeth at the apex (these up to 2 mm long but not easily seen on all flowers). Stamens 4; filaments markedly unequal in length; fused to the corolla; filaments glabrous. Anthers purple, or reddish, becoming yellow; ellipsoid; (1.5–)1.8–2.2(–2.5) mm long. Gynoecia superior. Carpels syncarpous; 2. Ovaries inverse turnip-shaped; glabrous. Styles 1. Ovules few. Fruit sessile. Fruit with calyx persisting; dry; a capsule; broadly lanceolate; distinctly flattened (on herbarium specimens at least); dehiscent; opening at the apex and partially down one side. Fruit 16–20 mm long; 5.5–6.5 mm wide; brown; glabrous; surface venation ribbed (persisting calyx more opaque than that of P. hirsuta; midveins prominent). Seeds few; 1.2–1.3 mm long; brown; with surfaces smooth.
Chromosome information. 2n = 16. 16 (2x). - Zhukova (1966 north eastern Asia, as P. langsdorffii); Mosquin and Hayley (1966 northern Canada, as P. arctica); Johnson and Packer (1968 northwestern Alaska , as P. langsdorffii). Ploidy levels recorded 2x.
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: North American, or Far East; Greenland, Canada, United States. Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories Islands, Continental Northwest Territories, Nunavut Islands, Continental Nunavut. Arctic, or alpine. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago widespread. Common. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, Parry Islands, Banks, Victoria.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: wet meadows, slopes, flood plains; imperfectly drained moist areas, or on seepage slopes, or on solifluction slopes; calcareous; gravel, sand, silt, till, moss; with low organic content, or peat. Habitats: imperfectly drained, mossy hummock (CAN 522181); in moist clay hummocks along streams (CAN 483717); slight slope with sandy, silty soil (CAN 472947); calcareous silty sandstone formation (CAN 489907); level river terrace with open Dryas heath (CAN 311644).
Notes. There might be a question of priority of the name as both P.
langsdorffii and P. arctica are published in 1823. The priority of
P. langsdorffii is probably accepted because of the assumption that P.
arctica first was published in 'Bot. App.' in 1824. A possible type of P.
arctica is "Pedicularis arctica Melville Island, [1819–1820],
leg. E. Sabine (BM)".
Polunin (1940) indicated that the name
‘langsdorffii’ has to be given priority over P. arctica
R. Br. because of the earlier distribution of separate copies of Steven’s
work (cf. Hultén’s work 1930, p. 118) even if it did not appear in
Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. until 1823. It is clear that the ‘Supplement to the
Appendix’ which contains ‘Brown’s List of Plants’ and
includes his diagnosis of P. arctica, did not appear until early in 1824,
(the date given on the title page following p. clxxix), even if Parry’s
‘Advertisement’ was dated 1823, and this date was given for the more
generally available ‘Chloris Melvilliana’.
Pedicularis
lanata belongs to a group of closely related species or subspecies where the
other representatives are P. dasyantha (Svalbard - Novaya Zemlya -
Taymyr) and P. alopecuroides (northern Siberia and Far East). If these
are considered as subspecies, the species will be named P. alopecuroides
as this name has priority (1825) before P. lanata (1827). Subspecific
combinations of 'lanata' and 'dasyantha' within P.
alopecuroides have not been made.
Pedicularis langsdorffii is a
tall and robust plant of the northern Pacific regions. Plant in the Arctic
Archipelago differs from it in often being more lanate, having a shorter spike,
and generally broader rachis to the leaf. The flowers also tend to be smaller,
but the differences are not consistent. Polunin (1940) suggested that the Arctic
Archipelago plants be called P. langdorffii var. arctica (R. Br.)
Polunin. Whether there are sufficient consistent distinctions to recognize this
variety, and two others suggested by Russian researcher Ivanina in his treatment
for the Panarctic Flora Checklist, is being discussed. (R. Elven, personal
communication 2001).
Polunin (1940) stated that the very P.
hirsuta-like habit of this species is well illustrated by Simmons (1906, pl.
2) Indeed it has often been confused with P. hirsuta into which it so
grades in the south of the Arctic Archipelago. However, the unusually large,
dark purple, conspicuously spreading and clearly bidentate flowers of the far
northern plants identify them with P. langsdorffii.
Williams and
Batzlli (1982) in a study of five species of Pedicularis that that are
common near Atkasook, Alaska, and rely on bumble-bees for pollination, found
P. langsdorfii had large numbers of ovules, high pollination
success and the largest number of seeds per shoot.
Illustrations. • Plant with root. Both of these roots are from P. langsdorfii subsp. arctica. They have a pale yellow branching taproot, a contrast with P. lanata where the taproot is bright lemon yellow and usully more robust (see P. lanata). Left: Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Hot Weather Creek, Edlund 70 and Roncato-Spencer. CAN 533234; Right: Melville Island, Tingmisut Lake, Tener and Harington 119. CAN 270541. • Plant in habitat. Plant nearly 20 cm high, growing with Salix arctica in a sheltered hollow, near the top of a sand pingo. Note bract leaves are longer than the flowers at the base of the inflorescence. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park, 11 July, 1999. Aiken 99–054. CAN. Scale bar in cm. • Close-up of flowers. Flowers with strongly arched, darker pink helmet petals. Nunavut, Axel Heiberg Island, Mokka Fiord. L. Gillespie 6105 and C. Vogel. 17 July 1996. • Close-up of flowers. Flowers with strongly arched, darker pink helmet petals. Nunavut, Axel Heiberg Island, Mokka Fiord. L. Gillespie 6105 and C. Vogel. 17 July 1996. • Close-up of flowers. Flowers with strongly arched, deeper pink helmet petals, that have two small teeth at the apex and with stigmas that ripen first extended. Landing petals are longer than helmet. Aiken 99–054. CAN. • Close-up of landing petals. Close-up of three landing petals and the tube of the corolla that leads to the nectary. Aiken 99–054. 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).
