Festuca hyperborea Holmen ex Frederiksen

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 : 206

Festuca hyperborea Holmen ex Frederiksen

Figures 11C, D, 12C

Materials examined. CANADA – Nunavut • Ellesmere Island, CFS Alert ; 82°27′41″N, 062°01′06″W; 121 m a.s.l.; 6 Aug. 2019; habitat: mesic habitat, with till and rocks as substrates, dominated by Saxifraga oppositifo- lia and moss; QFA0635522 .

Identification. Plants 4.5–9.0 cm high; herbaceous; caespitose. Fibrous roots present. Stems 3.5–7.0 cm long; erect or ascending; glabrous. Leaves basal and cauline. Sheath margins glabrous. Ligules 0.3–0.5 mm long. Basal leaf blades 3.5–28.0 mm long, 0.2–0.6 mm wide; linear; rolled in bud; abaxial and adaxial surfaces both glabrous; margins scabrous. Flag leaf blades 0.5–3.7 mm long, 0.2–0.4 mm wide; tip spoon–shaped. Inflorescence a dense panicle; 12–18 mm long. Branch at lowest inflorescence node 1; 0.9–2.3 mm long. Pedicels scabrous. Spikelets 6.4–6.8 mm long, 2.5–2.9 mm wide. Florets per spikelet 2–4. First glumes 1.8–2.7 mm long; lanceolate; surface glabrous; margins ciliate; apices acuminate. Second glumes 2–3 mm long (shorter than the lowest floret); lanceolate or oblong; veins 3; surface glabrous; margins ciliate; apices acute. Lemmas 3.4–3.9 mm long, 0.8– 0.9 mm wide; lanceolate; rounded on the back; veins 5;

surface dull and sparsely scabrous; apices ciliate; awned. Awn 1.3–1.7 mm long; arising from the tip or slightly below. Palea 3.3–3.6 mm long; veins scabrous. Rachilla between first and second lemmas 0.7–1.0 mm long. An- droecium with 3 stamens and 0.5–1.5 mm long anthers. Gynoecium with 2 styles.

Characteristics allowing to distinguish F. hyperborea from the other Festuca species present on Ellesmere Island can be found under F. baffinensis and F. brachyphylla subsp. brachyphylla .