Parnassia palustris L. var. neogaea Fernald
Bog star.
Rhodora 29: 311. 1937.
=Parnassia multiseta (Lebd.) Fern.
Ecology and habitat. Similar to Parnassia kotzebuei but the flowers are much larger, with broader and longer petals and the cauline leaf inserted near the middle of the stem.
Taxon as an environmental indicator. Discovery of this species in the Arctic Archipelago could indicate climatic warming, as it occurs near Banks Island in the Anderson River delta, but has not yet been recorded in the archipelago. The northernmost record is N.W.T., Anderson River Delta, 69°42'N (CAN).
Notes. Polunin (1940) noted that one collection belonging to this species has been made on the West Coast of Hudson Bay at Cape Eskimo. The species is plentiful only very slightly further south on both sides of Hudson Bay, and here varies greatly (even in closely contiguous plants within the same stand) in such characters as the size of the petals and the number of setae to each staminodal scale; also in the total height, which may be anywhere from less than 10 to more than 30 cm. Polunin (1940), Porsild (1957, 1964) and Porsild and Cody (1980) considered this a low arctic species which occurs abundantly near the Arctic Archipelago. It should be looked for in the archipelago.
Cite this publication as: ‘C.L. McJannet, S.G. Aiken, M.J. Dallwitz, L.J. Gillespie and L.L. Consaul. 1997 onwards. Saxifragaceae of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 28th November 2000. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000), Aiken, Dallwitz et al. (1999), and Aiken, Dallwitz, McJannet, Gillespie, and Consaul (1998) should also be cited (see References).