Silene uralensis (Ruprecht) Bocquet subsp. uralensis

Desjardins, Émilie, Lai, Sandra, Payette, Serge, Dubé, Martin, Sokoloff, Paul C., St-Louis, Annie, Poulin, Marie-Pier, Legros, Jade, Sirois, Luc, Vézina, François, Tam, Andrew & Berteaux, Dominique, 2021, Survey of the vascular plants of Alert (Ellesmere Island, Canada), a polar desert at the northern tip of the Americas, Check List 17 (1), pp. 181-225 : 196-197

Silene uralensis (Ruprecht) Bocquet subsp. uralensis

Syn.: Silene uralensis subsp. arctica (Fr.) Bocquet Figure 6E

Materials examined. CANADA – Nunavut • Ellesmere Island, CFS Alert ; 82°28′35″N, 062°28′23″W; 117 m a.s.l.; 15 Jul. 2019; habitat: xeric on a plateau between two creeks, with till and rocks as substrates; QFA0635570 .

Identification. Plants 3–5 cm high; herbaceous; not caespitose. Taproots present. Stems 1.5–3.5 cm long; erect; hairy, with septate non-glandular hairs. Leaves basal and cauline; opposite; petiolate (basal and lower cauline leaves) or sessile (upper cauline leaves). Petioles 3–5 mm long; glabrous. Basal leaf blades 5–11 mm long, 1–3 mm wide; obtrullate or oblanceolate; green or purple; abaxial and adaxial surfaces both glabrous; margins ciliate, with sparse hyaline, septate non-glandular hairs; apices acute. Cauline leaf blades 6–9 mm long, 1–2 mm wide; abaxial and adaxial surfaces both sparsely hairy, with septate non-glandular hairs; margins ciliates; apices acute. Inflorescence a solitary flower. Bracts 3–4 mm long, 0.8–2.0 mm wide. Pedicels hairy. Sepals 5; fused. Calyx bell-shaped; 9–15 mm long, 7–11 mm wide; 5-lobed; hyaline, whitish purple or pink, with dark purple longitudinal ribs; hairy, with septate non-glandular hairs. Petals 5; same length or slightly longer than the calyx (emerging of 1.2–2.5 mm long from the calyx); oblanceolate; notched; pinkish purple. Androecium with 8–10 stamens and 0.6–0.8 mm long, greenish-yellow anthers. Gynoecium with 5 styles and 1 stigma per style.

Silene uralensis subsp. uralensis differs from the three other Silene species present on Ellesmere Island ( S. acaulis (Linnaeus) Jacquin , S. involucrata (Chamisso & Schlechtendal) Bocquet subsp. involucrata and subsp. tenella (Tolmachew) Bocquet , and S. sorensenis (B. Boivin) Bocquet ; Aiken et al. 2007; GBIF 2020) by having petals of the same length as the calyx or slightly longer; the others have petals largely exceeding the calyx ( Aiken et al. 2007).