Flora of North America species comparison

Rumex persicarioides often has been treated by American botanists as a variety or synonym of R. maritimus (see R. S. Mitchell 1978). It and R. fueginus differ from Eurasian R. maritimus in many respects and are as distinct as many widely recognized Eurasian taxa of this aggregate (e.g., R. palustris, R. rossicus Murbeck, R. ucranicus Fischer ex Sprengel, R. marschallianus Reichenbach, R. amurensis Fr. Schmidt ex Maximowicz, R. evenkiensis Elisarjeva). When submerging R. persicarioides as a variety of R. maritimus, Mitchell noted: “Taxonomic treatment of the group from a Eurasian point of view would undoubtedly shed light on the minor problems which we face in North and South America.” However, from a Eurasian point of view (see e.g., K. H. Rechinger 1937, 1949; J. E. Lousley and D. H. Kent 1981; N. N. Tzvelev 1989b), all North American native taxa of subsect. Maritimi are evidently specifically different from any native Eurasian ones (with the only possible exception of Pacific plants, which are discussed below).

Plants similar to Rumex persicarioides, but with bigger tubercles and occuring along the Pacific coast from northern California to British Columbia, are, in my opinion, closer to R. fueginus in their habit and vegetative characters. K. H. Rechinger (1937) provisionally determined such specimens as R. persicarioides. J. E. Dawson (1979) noted that the Pacific plants differ from Atlantic ones in having bigger tubercles (more than 1.9 × 0.7–1 mm in western plants; less than 1.9 × 0.7 mm in eastern R. persicarioides in the narrow sense), and described these large-tubercled plants as a distinct variety, “R. maritimus var. pacificus���, unfortunately, an invalid name. However, that taxon seems to be extremely closely related to or possibly conspecific with the northeastern Asian species, R. ochotskius Rechinger f., which is known in eastern Asia from northern Japan to the Okhotsk Sea region of Russian Far East (especially Sakhalin and Kuril islands). The latter species also has large (to 2–2.5 mm) botuliform tubercles with obtuse apices. In the original description Rechinger stated: “…foliorum forma R. maritimo simillimus…,” but N. N. Tzvelev (1989b) in his recent treatment of the genus in the Russian Far East noted that most of the specimens of R. ochotskius seen by him had leaf blades rotundate-truncate or broadly cuneate at the base. The R. persicarioides-like plants from the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada (as well as their most probable allies from eastern Asia) need additional study. At present I prefer to place them provisionally into R. persicarioides, following Rechinger’s treatment.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

The name Rumex acetosa has been commonly misapplied to R. lapponicus. Native North American montane plants of the R. acetosa aggregate from the Rocky Mountains southward to Beartooth Plateau in Montana and Wyoming usually were referred to as R. alpestris [= Acetosa pratensis Miller subsp. alpestris (Jacquin) Á. Löve; A. pratensis subsp. arifolia (A. Blytt & O. C. Dahl) Á. Löve; R. arifolius Allioni, not Linnaeus f.; R. acetosa subsp. alpestris (Jacquin) Á. Löve; R. acetosa subsp. arifolius A. Blytt & O. C. Dahl]. Recent nomenclatural studies demonstrated that R. alpestris is an ambiguous name, which was probably based on plants belonging to R. scutatus Linnaeus (see I. O. Pestova 1998), and accepted the name R. arifolius for the predominantly European montane taxon. It differs from arctic plants, as well as from montane forms of the R. acetosa aggregate from southern Siberia and temperate North America, by its more robust habit, more branched inflorescence (similar to that of R. thyrsiflorus), and larger and more acute triangular-sagittate leaves (see A. I. Tolmachew 1966; N. N. Tzvelev 1989b; Pestova; R. Elven et al. 2000). Montane races possibly developed independently from R. lapponicus-like or R. acetosa-like ancestors, and they are still unclear taxonomically. Because of that, I prefer to keep those forms within R. lapponicus. The whole aggregate needs careful study; however, some authors prefer to include all arcto-montane Holarctic races of this aggregate in the collective and rather polymorphic R. alpestris in the broad sense (see Á. Löve 1944; Löve and D. Löve 1957).

Some arctic plants from western Alaska may be conspecific with Rumex pseudoxyria (Tolmatchew) Khokhrjakov [= R. acetosa subsp. pseudoxyria Tolmatchew; Acetosa pseudoxyria (Tolmatchew) Tzvelev], a taxon described from arctic eastern Siberia (A. I. Tolmachew 1966). This entity is evidently closely related to R. lapponicus but differs from all other members of the R. acetosa group in having basal leaves less than two times as long as wide, almost hastate or at least rounded-truncate at base, resembling those of Oxyria digyna (Linnaeus) Hill, cauline leaves small or completely reduced, and inflorescence occupying more than one-half of the stem; the plant itself is also somewhat similar in appearance to the European alpine species R. nivalis Hegetschweiler.

According to E. Hultén (1973), his Rumex arcticus var. perlatus, described from a single specimen collected at Tin City, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, agrees perfectly with the original description of R. acetosa subsp. pseudoxyria. It is unlikely that Hultén would confuse two rather distantly related groups. There is also a possibility that var. perlatus is identical with R. arcticus var. latifolius Tolmatchew (see discussion under R. arcticus). Additional collections are needed to confirm the occurrence of R. pseudoxyria in northwestern North America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)