Alopecurus borealis Trin.
Foxtail.
Incorrectly A. alpinus L. (Porsild 1964). The name A. alpinus Sm. is illegitimate as it is a later homonym of another species.
Type: the lectotype is the specimen preserved in the herbarium of Trinius from St. Paul Island "In insula St. Paul a cl. Langsdorff lectum"
Alopecurus alpinus Sm., non Villars
Alopecurus alpinus subsp. stejnegeri (Vassey) Hultén
Alopecurus alpinus var. stejnegeri (Vassey) Hultén
Alopecurus glaucus Less.
Alopecurus occidentalis Scribn. & Tweedy
Plants not caespitose; stems arising close together or singly (in the High Arctic); less than 15 cm high, or more than 15 cm high; 6–30 cm high. Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal; rhizomatous; elongate, or compact; 1.5–2 mm wide. Scales present; striate, or grooved; 10–20 mm long; glabrous. Aerial stems erect; glabrous. Leaves distributed along the stems. Sheaths with the margins fused only in the lower part; glabrous. Ligules 0.8–1.5 mm long; membranous; glabrous; transversely oblong; apices truncate; erose. Blades 10–65 mm long; 2–4 mm wide; spreading; rolled in bud; flat (usually, often rolling on drying); midvein conspicuously larger than the lateral veins, or midvein similar in size to other veins in the leaf. Blades adaxial surface scabrous (or sparsely scaberulous). Blades abaxial surface glabrous.
Flowering culm nodes not exposed (in dwarfed arctic plants), or becoming exposed (in larger plants); number visible 0–1. Flag leaf sheaths inflated (compared with other arctic species; but described as "scarcely inflated" in Flora Europaea). Inflorescence paniculate; dense; oblong to ovate (very compact, so that it is compared to a fox’s tail in the common name); 0.5–3 cm long (with numerous, very short branches); 5–15 mm wide. Inflorescence. Inflorescence main axis glabrous. Number of inflorescence branches at lowest node 2–4. Inflorescence primary branches 0.5–3 mm long; scabrous; with appressed secondary branches, or with spreading secondary branches (very short). Spikelets. Spikelets pedicellate; disarticulating at the base of the spikelet; laterally compressed (strongly so); oblong, or lanceolate, or ovate; 3–5(–6) mm long; 1–1.5(–1.7) mm wide. Florets per spikelet 1. Glumes. First glume 1 × the length of the second glume (approximately, equal or sub-equal); 1 × spikelet length; 3–6 mm long; lanceolate (to broadly acute); with trichomes (that are covered with greyish hairs, especially on the keel, margins fused at the base); margins ciliate; veins (2–)3(–4); apex acute. Second glume as long, or longer than the spikelet; almost as long as, or longer than, the lowest floret; broadly acute; 3–6 mm long; long hairy; veins (2–)3(–4). Rachilla terminating in a well-formed floret. Lemmas. Lemma (2.7–)3–4(–5) mm long; ovate to lanceolate; keeled; surface dull; surface hairy (towards apex); surface with trichomes on and between the veins; veins 3–5. Lemma apex rounded to truncate; erose; ciliate; awned. Awn arising from below the apex but above the middle (exserted or remaining within the glumes, straight); 0.3–0.7 mm long. Palea absent. Perianth reduced to lodicules. Anthers 1.5–2.5 mm long. Styles 2. Fruit sessile. Fruit dry; indehiscent. Fruit 1.5–2 mm long. Seeds 1.
Chromosome information. 2n = 100, 105, 112, 119–122, 130 (19 counts cited in Löve and Löve 1975.) This instability in chromosome number may indicate agamospermy.
Distribution. Circumpolar. High arctic. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago widespread. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Devon, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, Parry Islands, Cornwallis, Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, Somerset, King William, Southampton, Coats.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: wet meadows, snow patches, around the margins of ponds, marshes, along streams, river terraces, lake shores, tundra (e.g. Dryas), slopes (and grassy fields, plains, and plateaux), ridges; imperfectly drained moist areas, on solifluction slopes, dry (grassy environments, often near old camp sites), moderately well drained; acidic, or calcareous, or nitrophilous; rocks (limestone), gravel, sand (sometimes coarse, on deltas or beaches), silt, clay, till, moss (in mossy cracks on patterned ground); peat (occasionally in peat bogs). Habitats: This species occurs as a primary coloniser of disturbed sites with enhanced growth around snow bed zones, solifluction lobes, animal burrows, bird colonies, and refuse dumps. While the map suggests this species is ubiquitous throughout the Arctic, it does not compete well in dense low Arctic tundra. It becomes common, even dominant, in wetlands of the northwestern Queen Elizabeth Islands where it occurs on moderately to imperfectly drained silt and clay at nearly all elevations.
Taxon as an environmental indicator. The vigour and height of plants of this species strongly reflect environmental conditions. On disturbed sites around towns in Southern Greenland plants form dense clumps 30–45 cm high. In the coldest sectors of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, a plant forms a single culm 10–15 cm high in each growing season. The "foxtail" heads are characteristic and in sparsely vegetated areas on Melville Island can be seen from a low-flying helicopter and used to distinguish relatively dry tundra from wetter Luzula areas.
Notes. Alopecurus borealis Trin. is now accepted as the valid name because A. alpinus Sm. is predated by A. alpinus Villars. (Stace 1997). It was treated as A. alpinus L. in Porsild (1964); that is, the authority for the name was incorrectly attributed to Linnaeus.
Porsild (1964), probably writing from his experiences in Greenland, suggested that this species is strongly nitrophilous, and with fertiliser and minimum cultivation, provides good grazing, yielding short, but nourishing hay.
Bell and Bliss (1978) estimated that the roots of A. borealis live 3.4–7 years.
Illustrations. • Plant habitat. Plants growing in wet, highly calcareous silt as many relatively isolated single stems. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay, 79°53'N, 71°33'W. S.G. Aiken 98–022. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Field specimen. Nunavut, Cornwallis Island, Resolute Bay, tundra at Thule site, Aiken 93–082. (CAN). Photographed by G. Steel, August 1993. • Laboratory specimen. Nunavut, Cornwallis Island, Resolute Bay, plant from tundra adjacent to Polar Continental Shelf Project station, Aiken 93–082. (CAN). Photographed by G. Steel, August 1993. • Type specimen. Type specimen of Alopecurus alpinus, collected in Scotland: Aberdeenshire near Invercauld, wet rocks in the west covy on the northwest sides of Lochnagar: in flower. Aug. 1779, R. Brown s.n. (Holotype: BM). Photograph by L. Consaul. See discussion of this name in notes. • Close-up of inflorescence. "Fox tail-like inflorescence with prominent stigmas in uppermost flowers and fertile anthers in lower flowers. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay 79°53'N, 71°33'W. Aiken 98–022. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Distribution map.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, L.L. Consaul, and M.J. Dallwitz. 1995 onwards. Poaceae of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 10th December 2001. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) , and Aiken, Dallwitz et al. (1999) should also be cited (see References).
