Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
| Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago | |
English: Harebell,
French: Campanule à feuilles rondes,
Inuktitut: Tikinnguaq, tikiujaq.
Campanulaceae, Bluebell family.
Published in Sp. Pl. 163. 1753.
Synonymy. Campanula gieseckiana Vest, in Roem. and Schult., Syst. Veg. 5: 89. 1819.
Campanula groenlandica Berlin, Ôfvers. Kongl. Vet.-Akad. Fürh. 41, 7: 50. 1884.
Vegetative morphology. Plants 10–30 cm high (on continental North America); perennial herbs. Taproot present. Roots pallid-brown. Ground level or underground stems vertical (rarely collected). Caudex present (freely branching). Aerial stems branching from a tap at or near ground level into two or more branches, or developed; erect (usually). Leaves heterophyllous, or not heterophyllous (the shape changes between the lower and upper leaves); distributed along the stems; alternate; dying annually and non-persistent. Petioles present (slight), or absent; 0–12 mm long; glabrous. Leaf blade bases truncate, or attenuate. Blades 10–30(–60) mm long, 1–5 mm wide, spreading, ovate or oblanceolate (basal leaves) or linear (leaves near the inflorescence, fresh green), flat, veins pinnate. Blade adaxial surface glabrous. Blade abaxial surface glabrous. Blade apices acuminate, or acute.
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems solitary; with leaves. Flowering stems glabrous. Flowers solitary (Arctic islands), or in inflorescences (continental North America). Inflorescences paniculate (campanulate, if applicable); diffuse (if applicable). Flowers medium-sized, or large. Sepals conventional; 5; free; 0.3–1 mm long; 3.5–9 mm wide; green. Calyx without sessile glands; glabrous (cf. C. uniflora that has pubescent sepals). Petals conventional; fused; 5; white (rarely), or blue; 12–20 mm long (corolla 10–20 mm in diameter); not spurred. Corolla campanulate; 5-lobed (shallowly). Stamens 5; stamen filaments glabrous; free of the corolla. Anthers yellow; long-cylindrical; 2.2–2.5 mm long. Receptacle 3–6 mm high. Ovary inferior; carpels 3; syncarpous. Styles 1; 0.7–1.1 mm long. Stigmas per ovary 3. Stigma lobes 1–2 mm long. Fruit stalked; with calyx persisting; dry; a capsule; yellowish, or brown; 4–6 mm long (without the calyx); 4–5 mm wide; glabrous; dehiscent (opening by slits). Seeds 100 (numerous); 0.7–0.9 mm long; brown; surfaces smooth.
Chromosome information. 2n = 34, or 68–72, or 102.
2n (2x) = 34. Böcher (1936, 1960, 1966b, as 'giesekiana'); Flovik (1940, Greenland?); Böcher and Larsen (1950, Greenland); Löve and Solbrig (1964b, Arctic Canada); Löve and Löve (1965a, northeastern USA, as 'giesekiana', 1966b, northeastern USA, 1980b, as 'giesekiana'); Laane (1965, 1968, northern Norway); Sokolovskaya (1970, northeastern Russia); Croff (1978 northern Norway, 11 counts); Nurmi (1986, northern Europe); Lövkvist and Hultgård (1999, southern Sweden, 3 counts). Numerous more southern counts.
2n (4x) = 68-72. Böcher (1936, 1938a, 1963a; 2n = 72, 1966a, Greenland, as 'giesekiana groenlandica'); Rohweder (1937, northcentral Europe); Vaarama, in Löve and Löve (1948, Finland); Böcher and Larsen (1950, Greenland); Löve and Löve (1956, Iceland; 1966b, northeastern USA; 1982a, central Canada, as 'rotundifolia groenlandica'); Packer (1964, western Canada); Taylor and Brockman (1966, western Canada); Croff (1978, Norway, 126 counts); Nurmi (1986, northern Europe); Lövkvist and Hultgård (1999, southern and northern Sweden, 29 counts). Numerous more southern counts.
2n (6x) = 102. Hubac (1961); Gadella (1962a, 1963c); Podlech (1962); Podlech and Damboldt (1963); Podlech (1965); Taylor and Mulligan (1968, western Canada); Kovanda (1966, western and northern Europe); McAllister (1973, northern Britain); Negre and Geslot (1975, southwestern and northern Europe); Kliphuis, in Löve (1977).
Ploidy levels recorded 2x, 4x, and 6x.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: tundra (or gull cliffs); dry (or turfy).
North American distribution. Alaska, Yukon, continental Northwest Territories, Nunavut Islands, continental Nunavut, northern Quebec, Labrador. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago limited. Rare. Arctic, alpine. Arctic islands: Baffin.
Northern hemisphere distribution. Circumpolar (with large gaps), or circumboreal. Northern Iceland, Northern Fennoscandian, Kanin–Pechora, Svalbard – Franz Joseph Land, Polar Ural – Novaya Zemlya, Yamal–Gydan, Taimyr – Severnaya Zemlya, Anabar–Olenyok, Kharaulakh, Yana–Kolyma, West Chukotka, East Chukotka (introduced), West Alaska (introduced), Central Canada, Labrador – Hudson Bay, West Greenland, East Greenland.
General notes. The infraspecific variation is appreciable and treated in different ways in different traditions. In North America, only diploid counts have been reported from the Arctic. In Greenland, Böcher et al. (1978) recognised the plants as C. gieseckiana with two races, the widely distributed diploid (2n = 34) as subsp. gieseckiana and the more restricted southern and eastern tetraploid (2n = 68) as subsp. groenlandica. In Fennoscandia, tetraploids occur everywhere except for the northeastern corner. Both lowland plants with many and comparatively small flowers and alpine plants with often large single flowers are tetraploid, the latter sometimes named as C. groenlandica. There seems to be no discontinuity in the morphological patterns. In the northeastern (arctic) corner diploids are dominant or perhaps exclusive (see Croff 1978), with the morphological pattern of the tetraploid mountain plants. Diploids also occur in the southeastern (Swedish and Finnish) lowlands, with the morphological pattern of the tetraploid lowland plants. The few Svalbard plants that have been counted are diploid and resemble the Greenland and northeastern Fennoscandian diploids. It seems impossible, at least in the Nordic area, to recognise diploids and tetraploids, or mountain/tundra and lowland plants, as separate taxa. Hexaploids do not seem to reach the Arctic (Elven et al. 2003).
Illustrations. • Habitat. Plants with blue flowers growing on dry sandy hillside. Quebec, Nunavik, Douglas Harbour. 1 August, 2006. Aiken. No voucher. • Habitat: Kangirsujuaq. Plants with blue flowers growing beside the marker in dry gravel near the river. Quebec, Nunavik, Kangirsujuaq. 22 July, 2006. Aiken 06–009. CAN. • Habitat. Plants growing near the marker and most of the plants in the adjacent tundra are also this species. The blue flowers are in bud and erect at this stage of development. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Ogac Lake. 12 July, 2004. Aiken and LeBlanc 04–100. CAN 586572. • Close-up of plants. Plants growing towards the sun with blue flowers semi-erect and beginning to open. Aiken and LeBlanc 04–100. CAN 586572. • Close-up of plants. Plants in bud and in full flower. Quebec, Nunavik, Kangirsujuaq. 22 July, 2006. Aiken 06–009. CAN. • Close-up of flowers. Flowers with thread-like sepals, fused, "rotund" petals. Note that buds may be more or less erect early in flowering but flowers face towards the ground. Quebec, Nunavik, Kangirsujuaq. 22 July, 2006. Aiken 06–009. • Close-up of plant. Isolated plant growing on rocky scree slope. Note changing leaf shape from from the basal leaves up the stem and solitary campanulate flower with spreading petals. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Ogac Lake. Aiken and LeBlanc 04–100. CAN 586572. • Close-up of leaves. Shape variation in basal leaves from ovate to linear progressively up the stem. Aiken and LeBlanc 04–100. CAN 586572. • Side view of flower. Solitary, relatively large blue flower with fused petals and linear free calyx segments. Aiken and LeBlanc 04–100. CAN 586572. • Looking into flower. Flower with five deeply divided petals that are fused at the base, five long purple anthers that are mostly opposite the gaps between the petals and a central style branching into 3 stigmas. At this stage of flowering the flower was nodding towards the ground. Aiken and LeBlanc 04–100. CAN 586572. • Flowers going to seed. Flowers setting seed. Petals faded to straw colour but still attached. Nunavik, Douglas Harbour. 2 August, 2006. Aiken. No voucher. • Arctic Island Distribution.
This publication is available on the internet (posted May 2011) and on CD-ROM (published in 2007). These versions are identical in content, except that the errata page for CD-ROM is accessible on the main index page of the web version.
Recommended citation for the web-based version of this publication: Aiken, S.G., Dallwitz, M.J., Consaul, L.L., McJannet, C.L., Boles, R.L., Argus, G.W., Gillett, J.M., Scott, P.J., Elven, R., LeBlanc, M.C., Gillespie, L.J., Brysting, A.K., Solstad, H., and Harris, J.G. 2007. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. NRC Research Press, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa. http://nature.ca/aaflora/data, accessed on DATE.
Recommended citation for the CD-ROM version of this publication: Aiken, S.G., Dallwitz, M.J., Consaul, L.L., McJannet, C.L., Boles, R.L., Argus, G.W., Gillett, J.M., Scott, P.J., Elven, R., LeBlanc, M.C., Gillespie, L.J., Brysting, A.K., Solstad, H., and Harris, J.G. 2007. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. [CD-ROM] NRC Research Press, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa.
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