Flora of North America species comparison

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Diapensia obovata

Alaska diapensia, alaskan pincushion plant, diapensia, nakai's diapensia
Habit Plants usually forming mats or low mounds or cushions (not tussock-forming), 2–5 cm; branches procumbent or decumbent, adventitiously rooted, proximal portions of stems with or without persistent leaf remnants.
Leaves

3–8(–12) mm;

blade obovate to spatulate-elliptic, 1.5–2.2(–3) mm wide, margins narrowly revolute, usually herbaceous, sometimes with narrow hyaline flange.
Pedicels

5–20 mm, elongating to 30–50 mm.
Flowers

sepals 4–7 mm;

corolla 7–9 mm, lobes usually white, sometimes light pink or rose.
Capsules

3–4(–6) mm diam. 2n = 12.

Diapensia obovata
Phenology Flowering Jun–Jul.
Habitat Tundra, alpine heath, subalpine meadows, slopes and ridges, dry or moist areas, gravel, silt (run-off banks)
Elevation 500-1500 m (1600-4900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; BC; NT; YT; Asia (Japan, Korea, Russia [Kamchatka], e arctic and subarctic Siberia)
Discussion

Justifying his recognition of Diapensia obovata at subspecific rank, E. Hultén (1941–1950, vol. 8) wrote that “it seems to me to be a clear geographical race of D. lapponica and should be regarded as a subspecies.” Among relatively recent accounts to include both taxa, Hultén (1968), H. J. Scoggan (1978–1979, part 4), and W. J. Cody (2000) treated them as subspecies; B. K. Schischkin (1952) and A. E. Porsild and W. J. Cody (1980) treated them as distinct species.

The two taxa differ consistently in morphology, especially in growth form. In leaf shape, they are generally distinct, although their ranges of variation overlap. P. J. Scott and R. T. Day (1983) observed that they differ significantly in leaf length/width ratio—2–2.5 in subsp. lapponica versus 2.75–2.8 in subsp. obovatabut that the “distinction between the subspecies breaks down where they nearly meet in the Northwest Territories of Canada.” Maps by E. Hultén (1968) and A. E. Porsild and W. J. Cody (1980) indicate that the two taxa are separated in range by about 1000 kilometers. Each in its characteristic form is distributed over a broad area, and, in the view here, meets the morphogeographic criteria generally used for plant species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 338.
Parent taxa Diapensiaceae > Diapensia
Sibling taxa
D. lapponica
Synonyms D. lapponica var. obovata, D. lapponica subsp. obovata
Name authority (F. Schmidt) Nakai: Trees Shrubs Japan 1: 194. 1922 ,
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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