Chromosome races in Rumex arcticus (Polygonaceae)

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Botany
• Main Authors: Mulligan, Gerald A., Frankton, Clarence
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1972
• Subjects: Plant Science; Arctic; Bering Sea; Kamchatka Peninsula; Lawrence Island; Kamchatka; Seward Peninsula; St Lawrence Island; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b72-053; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/b72-053

Rumex arcticus Trautv., a species found on the mainland of northwestern North America and in northeastern U.S.S.R., contains tetraploid (2n = 40), dodecaploid (2n = 120), and perhaps 2n = 160 and 2n = 200 chromosome races. Most North American plants are tetraploid and are larger in size and have more compound and contiguous inflorescences than typical R. arcticus. Typical plants of R. arcticus occur in the arctic U.S.S.R., St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, and at the tip of the Seward Peninsula of Alaska, and they all have 120 or more somatic chromosomes. High polyploid plants of R. arcticus that resemble North American tetraploids in appearance apparently occur on the Kamchatka Peninsula. These have been called R. kamtshadalus Komarov or R. arcticus var. kamtshadalus (Kom.) Rech. f. by some authors.