Arenaria humifusa Wahl.

Gillespie, Lynn J., Saarela, Jeffery M., Sokoloff, Paul C. & Bull, Roger D., 2015, New vascular plant records for the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, PhytoKeys 52, pp. 23-79 : 43

Arenaria humifusa Wahl. Fig. 12

Common name.

Creeping sandwort

Distribution.

Arctic North America-amphi-Atlantic

Comments.

Our collections from the Minto Inlet area of Victoria Island represent the first record of the species from the western CAA. Plants were matted, often large, forming loose circular cushions and were found growing on inland sand dunes. Although the species is primarily distributed in the eastern Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic (south to Nova Scotia) and around Hudson Bay, it is also found scattered on the Northwest Territories and Nunavut mainland south of Victoria Island (specimens at CAN). Porsild and Cody (1980) treated Arenaria humifusa in the broad sense including Arenaria longipedunculata (see below) and the distribution shown for Alaska, Yukon, and part of the Northwest Territories is that of the latter species. Neither species has previously been recorded for the western Arctic Islands ( Porsild and Cody 1980, Aiken et al. 2007). Our Minto Inlet collections have short pedicels (0.5-4 mm long) with mostly very short retrorse hairs (and few scattered glandular hairs), flowers not exserted above the leaves, glabrous sepals and smooth leaf margins, all characteristics of Arenaria humifusa s.s.

Specimen examined.

Canada. Northwest Territories: Inuvik Region, Victoria Island, Sand dunes east of Kuujjua River, 2 km south of lower Kuujjua River, 71°10'4.8"N, 116°27'54"W, 110 m, 16 July 2010, Gillespie, Saarela, Doubt, Bull & Sokoloff 9882 (ALA, CAN-599149, O); Inuvik Region, Victoria Island, Sand dunes east of Kuujjua River, 2 km south of lower Kuujjua River, 71°10'4.8"N, 116°27'54"W, 110 m, 16 July 2010, Gillespie, Saarela, Doubt, Bull & Sokoloff 9893 (ALA, CAN-599166, O); Inuvik Region, Victoria Island, sandy bank of Kuujjua River, south of "Fish Lake", 71°6'43.2"N, 116°6'21.2"W, 74 m, 17 July 2010, Gillespie, Saarela, Doubt, Bull & Sokoloff 9971 (CAN-599167).