New vascular plant records for the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Author
Gillespie, Lynn J.
Botany Section & Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration, Research and Collections, Canadian Museum of Nature, P. O. Box 3443 Stn. D, Ottawa, Ontario K 1 P 6 P 4, Canada
lgillespie@mus-nature.ca
Author
Saarela, Jeffery M.
Botany Section & Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration, Research and Collections, Canadian Museum of Nature, P. O. Box 3443 Stn. D, Ottawa, Ontario K 1 P 6 P 4, Canada
Author
Sokoloff, Paul C.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7053-8557
Botany Section & Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration, Research and Collections, Canadian Museum of Nature, P. O. Box 3443 Stn. D, Ottawa, Ontario K 1 P 6 P 4, Canada
Author
Bull, Roger D.
Botany Section & Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration, Research and Collections, Canadian Museum of Nature, P. O. Box 3443 Stn. D, Ottawa, Ontario K 1 P 6 P 4, Canada
text
PhytoKeys
2015
2015-06-25
52
23
79
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.52.8721
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.52.8721
1314-2003-52-23
FF88FF9505162F2FFFA7F372FF96FFC6
576313
Sabulina stricta (Sw.) Rchb.
Minuartia stricta
(Sw.) Hiern
Common name.
Bog stitchwort
Distribution.
Circumpolar-alpine
Comments.
This species was first recorded for the western CAA, on southern Victoria Island, by
Thannheiser et al. (2001
; no voucher collection located), and is confirmed by our collection. The species is known from Baffin, Southampton, and Coats Islands in the eastern Arctic Islands, and has a scattered distribution across the low Arctic (and north-west alpine areas) from Alaska to Labrador and Greenland. On mainland Nunavut it is currently known only from the Hudson Bay area, and in the Northwest Territories from the vicinity of Great Bear Lake and the Hornaday River (
Porsild and Cody 1980
,
Saarela et al. 2013a
). The Victoria Island collections represent a range extension of ca. 400 km northeast of the Northwest Territories populations and ca. 1000 km west of the closest Nunavut population.
This
species was previously known as
Minuartia stricta
(Sw.) Hiern (e.g.,
Porsild and Cody 1980
,
Rabeler et al. 2005
,
Aiken et al. 2007
) (the name
Sabulina stricta
(Michx.) Small ex Rydb., based on
Arenaria stricta
Michx. [=
Sabulina michauxii
(Fenzl) Dillenb. & Kadereit, a non-Arctic species], is an illegitimate homonym). Recent molecular studies have determined
Minuartia
to be polyphyletic (
Harbaugh-Reynaud et al. 2010
,
Greenberg and Donoghue 2011
,
Saarela et al. 2013b
,
Dillenberger and Kadereit 2014
). The most comprehensive sampling of the genus was conducted by
Dillenberger and Kadereit (2014)
, who proposed a new classification of the group. The clade to which
Minuartia stricta
belongs ("clade 10") has been segregated as a distinct genus,
Sabulina
Rchb., with 65 species.
Sabulina
includes four other Canadian Arctic species:
Sabulina dawsonensis
(Britton) Rydb. [syn.
Minuartia dawsonensis
(Britton) House],
Sabulina elegans
(Cham. & Schltdl.) Dillenb. & Kadereit [syn.
Minuartia elegans
(Cham. & Schltdl.) Schischk],
Sabulina rossii
(R.Br.) Dillenb. & Kadereit [syn.
Minuartia rossii
(R.Br.) Graebn.],
Sabulina rubella
(Wahlenb.) Dillenb. & Kadereit [syn.
Minuartia rubella
(Wahlenb.) Hiern.]. Four Canadian Arctic species,
Minuartia biflora
(L.) Schinz & Thell.,
Minuartia arctica
(Steven ex Ser.) Graebn.,
Minuartia obtusiloba
(Rydb.) House, and
Minuartia yukonensis
Hulten
, are part of "clade 6" in
Dillenberger and Kadereit (2014)
, which they recognize as the genus
Cherleria
L., with some 19 species. Combinations for these species in
Cherleria
are not available; we assume they will be published in a revision of
Cherleria
that is noted to be in preparation (
Dillenberger and Kadereit 2014
, see their Appendix S3).
Cherleria
is distinguished from
Sabulina
by sepals obtuse and oblong (versus acute and linear-lanceolate) (
Dillenberger and Kadereit 2014
).
Minuartia macrocarpa
(Pursh) Ostenfeld (=
Pseudocherleria macrocarpa
(Pursh) Dillenb. & Kadereit) is part of "clade 3", which is recognized as the new genus
Pseudocherleria
Dillenb. & Kadereit, with ca. 12 species.
Pseudocherleria
has obtuse sepals, but differs in its long acute multicellular hairs (
Dillenberger and Kadereit 2014
).
Minuartia groenlandica
(Retzius) Ostenfeld (=
Mononeuria groenlandica
(Retzius) Dillenb. & Kadereit) is part of "clade 5", recognized as the genus
Mononeuria
Rchb., characterized by an annual or biennial habit and emarginate petals (sometimes absent) twice as long as the sepals (
Dillenberger and Kadereit 2014
). There are no species of
Minuartia
s.s. in the Canadian Arctic. Of the above species only
Sabulina elegans
,
Sabulina rossii
,
Sabulina rubella
,
Sabulina stricta
, and
Minuartia biflora
occur in the CAA.
Sabulina stricta
may be distinguished from the closely related and largely sympatric
Sabulina rossii
-
Sabulina elegans
species complex by the presence of branched flowering stems bearing two or more flowers (versus always unbranched and 1-flowered in the latter). Recent molecular evidence suggests that
Sabulina stricta
may be part of this species complex and not easily separable from the genetically diverse species
Sabulina elegans
(
Saarela et al. 2013b
, S. Leung and L.J. Gillespie, unpubl. data).
Specimens examined.
Canada. Nunavut
: Kitikmeot Region, Victoria Island, rocky hills S of large unnamed lake ca. 18 km ENE of Johansen Bay airstrip,
68°38'43"N
,
110°40'9"W
, 50-80 m, 14 July 2008,
Gillespie, Saarela, Consaul & Bull 7966
(ALA, CAN-592334, MT, O).
Figure 12.
Arenaria humifusa
:
A
habitat
B
habit
C
flowers,
Gillespie et al. 9882
. Photographs by L.J. Gillespie.