Saarela JM, LJ Gillespie, PC Sokoloff. The Arctic Flora of Canada and Alaska project. Arctic Change 2014, 8–12 December 2014, Ottawa, ON, Canada. [poster]

1. The Flora boundary (Fig. 3) follows the limits of the arctic
ecozone in Canada and northern Alaska as defined by the
Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map Team (CAVM Team
2003), with a few modifications. Western Alaska is excluded
due to its closer floristic affinity to Far East Russia. Most
islands within Hudson Bay (i.e., Belcher Islands and others
at equal or greater latitude) — all part of Nunavut — are
part of the Flora region.
Two arctic-boreal regions south of the main boundary line
of the Flora will be given special consideration since many
Arctic species reach their southern limits here. These are
the Hudson Bay coastal region (HBC) in Manitoba, Ontario
and Quebec, and the Plateau du Lac Nedlouc in Northern
Quebec. All arctic species (i.e., species that occur in the
Flora region) will be treated and mapped for these regions;
boreal species that do not occur within the main Flora
boundary will not be treated.
The Arctic Flora of Canada and Alaska project
Jeffery M. Saarela, Lynn J. Gillespie & Paul C. Sokoloff
Botany Section and Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration, Research and Collections,
Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada
INTRODUCTION
FLORISTIC DIVERSITY
REFERENCES
Figure 3: Map of the region covered by the Arctic Flora of Canada and Alaska.
Aiken SG, Dallwitz MJ, Consaul LL, McJannet CL, Boles RL, Argus GW, Gillett JM, Scott PJ, Elven R, LeBlanc MC, Gillespie LJ,
Brysting AK, Solstad H, Harris JG. 2007. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and
Information Retrieval [CD-ROM]. NRC Research Press, National Research Council of Canada. http://nature.ca/en/research-
collections/our-research/areas-expertise/botany/flora-canadian-arctic-archipelago.
Al-Shehbaz IA, Mulligan GA. 2013. New or noteworthy species of Draba from Canada and Alaska. Harvard Papers in Botany 18:
101–124.
Brouillet L, Coursol F, Meades SJ, Favreau M, Anions M, Bélisle P, Desmet P. 2010+. VASCAN, the Database of Vascular Plants of
Canada. http://data.canadensys.net/vascan/(consulted on 2014-05-29)
CAVM Team. 2003. Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map. (1:7,500,000 scale), Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Map
No. 1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska. ISBN: 0-9767525-0-6, ISBN-13: 978-0-9767525-09
Consaul LL, Gillespie LJ, Waterway MJ. 2008. A new species of alkali grass (Puccinellia, Poaceae) from the western North
American Arctic. Novon 18: 16–20.
Daniëls FJA, Gillespie LJ, Poulin M. 2013. Plants in: Arctic Biodiversity Assessment. Status and trends in Arctic biodiversity, pp.
310–353 (Edited by H Meltofte). Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Akureyri.
Elven R, Al-Shehbaz IA. 2008. Draba simmonsii (Brassicaceae), a new species of the D. micropetala complex from the Canadian
Arctic Archipelago. Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature 18: 325–329 doi: 10.3417/2007178.
Elven R, Murray DF, Razzhivin VY, Yurtsev BA. 2011. Annotated Checklist of the Panarctic Flora (PAF) Vascular plants.
http://www.nhm.uio.no/english/research/infrastructure/paf/(consulted on 2014-05-29)
Gillespie LJ, Saarela JM, Sokoloff PC, Bull RD. In Review. New vascular plant records for the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
Harris JG. 2006. Five new subspecies of Braya (Brassicaceae) from Canada. Novon 16: 344–353. doi: 10.3417/1055-
3177(2006)16[344:FNSOBB]2.0.CO;2
Smith V, Rycroft S, Harman K, Scott B, Roberts D. 2009. Scratchpads: a data-publishing framework to build, share and manage
information on the diversity of life. BMC Bioinformatics 10: S6. doi:10.1186/1471-2105-10-S14-S6
Smith V, Rycroft S, Brake I, Scott B, Baker E, Livermore L, Blagoderov V, Roberts D. 2011. Scratchpads 2.0: a Virtual Research
Environment supporting scholarly collaboration, communication and data publication in biodiversity science. ZooKeys 150: 53–
70. doi:10.3897/zookeys.150.2193
Solstad H. 2009. Taxonomy and evolution of the diploid and polyploid Papaver sect. Meconella (Papaveraceae). PhD Thesis,
University of Oslo, Oslo.
The goal of the Arctic Flora of Canada and Alaska (AFCA) project is to produce a comprehensive flora of the arctic ecozone in Canada and
northern Alaska. We aim to move the Flora beyond current standards and produce a treatment that is digital, interactive, and which takes
full advantage of current (and future) web and database technologies. At its core the Flora will consist of taxon descriptions, nomenclatural
data, dichotomous keys, and specimen based distribution maps. Information will be published on-line as it is generated and ready for
release. By being electronic, this flora will function as a living document, able to easily take advantage of the latest taxonomic,
distributional, and other related information. It will also allow us to employ emerging software innovations such as fully interactive keys
and descriptions.
The Flora will treat an estimated 1400 species – about 27% of Canada’s vascular flora (5113 species, Brouillet et al. 2010+). As a
preliminary working checklist of taxa in the Flora region, we are following the Annotated Checklist of the Panarctic Flora (PAF) Vascular
Plants (Elven et al. 2011). The number of species in the Arctic Flora of Canada and Alaska region is likely lower as the PAF Checklist included
numerous borderline species that may or may not be in our Flora region, and included many boreal species present in the Hudson Bay
Lowlands but not in the Flora region. A precise listing of species in the Flora region awaits careful checking of specimens, which will
happen as part of preparing taxonomic treatments.
The Arctic Flora is being developed using Scratchpads (Smith et al. 2009, 2011), a Drupal-based content management system for
biodiversity data (Fig. 1,2). Example treatments are online for Pedicularis langsdorffii subsp. arctica, P. hirsuta (draft treatments), and
Elymus alaskanus (complete nomenclatural data), and can be found at arcticplants.myspecies.info.
GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS OF THE FLORA
Figure 4: Species richness and endemicity of the flora in the four
North American floristic provinces (Elven et al. 2011) that comprise
the Arctic Flora of Canada and Alaska region. For each province the
percentage of total Arctic diversity is given, followed by number of
endemic taxa and percentage of total Arctic endemics. Figure
adapted from Daniëls et al. (2013).
Figure 1: Home page of the AFCA Website (http://arcticplants.myspecies.info/).
B
C
D
E F
A
Figure 2: Examples of species-level treatments on the Arctic Flora of Canada and Alaska
website. Data for each taxon are organized by tabs: A) Overview (nomenclature and image
summary), B) Descriptions and other information, C) Media, D) Literature, E) Maps, and F)
Specimens.
North Alaska-Yukon (AN) – 33%
(26 endemic – 25%)
Ellesmere-North Greenland (EP) – 9%
(28 endemic – 26%)
Central Canada (CC) – 28.9%
(34 endemic – 32%)
Hudson Bay-Labrador (HL) – 34.7%
(20 endemic – 19%)
Of the 2218 vascular plant species recorded for the
circumpolar arctic, 1473 are reported for the four floristic
provinces that comprise the Flora area (Elven et al. 2011).
This estimate is significantly higher than the 375 vascular
plant taxa known for the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
(Aiken et al. 2007; Gillespie et al. in review.). The Hudson
Bay-Labrador province has the highest species diversity
(769 species), the Ellesmere province the lowest (199
species), reflecting the pronounced decrease in diversity
from south to north. The Central Canada province has the
highest number of Arctic endemics.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NEW DISCOVERIES AND ADDITIONS TO THE FLORA OF THE
CANADIAN ARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO
Since the publication of the Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (Aiken et al.
2007), the last major floristic work in the AFCA region, museum-led collecting trips
and examination of existing herbarium specimens have uncovered taxa not yet
recorded from the Arctic Islands, including several newly described taxa, such as
Puccinellia banksiensis (Consaul et al. 2008). In total, 30 species and infraspecific
taxa have been added to the flora of the Archipelago, representing a 7.7% increase
from Aiken et al. (2007). This includes the addition of 3 plant families and 7 genera
(Gillespie et al. in review) [Table 1].
Further additions to the flora of the Canadian Arctic are probable, particularly at the
species rich taiga to tundra transition on the Arctic mainland that has generally been
poorly explored botanically. Field work is needed in many areas.
Figure 5: New vascular plant species reported for the Canadian Arctic Archipelago since 2007.
Left: Puccinellia banksiensis. Right: Triglochin palustris.
We thank Roger D. Bull for the photographs presented in this poster. Financial
support for the Arctic Flora of Canada and Alaska project is provided by the
Canadian Museum of Nature. Fieldwork support was provided by the Polar
Continental Shelf Program.
Imagery ©2014 NASA, TerraMetrics, Map data ©2014 Google
Imagery ©2014 NASA, TerraMetrics, Map data ©2014 Google
Family Species
Pteridaceae Cryptogramma stelleri (S.G. Gmel.) Prantl
Cyperaceae Carex brunnescens (Pers.) Poir.
Juncaginaceae Triglochin palustris L.
Orchidaceae Platanthera obtusata (Banks ex Pursh) Lindl. subsp. obtusata
Poaceae Leymus mollis (Trin.) Pilg. subsp. mollis
Puccinellia banksiensis Consaul
Potamogetonaceae Stuckenia subretusa (Hagstr.) Holub
Amaranthaceae Suaeda calceoliformis (Hook.) Moq.
Brassicaceae Braya humilis subsp. ellesmerensis J.G. Harris
Braya glabella subsp. prostrata J.G. Harris
Braya thorild-wulffii subsp. glabrata J.G. Harris
Draba simmonsii Elven & Al-Shehbaz
Draba cayouettei G.A. Mulligan & Al-Shehbaz
Caryophyllaceae Arenaria longipedunculata Hultén
Ericaceae Andromeda polifolia L.
Lentibulariaceae Utricularia ochroleuca R.W. Hartm.
Papaveraceae Papaver hultenii Knaben
Primulaceae Primula egaliksensis Wormsk.
Ranunculaceae Coptidium × spitsbergense (Hadač) Luferov & Prob.
Saxifragaceae Saxifraga rivularis subsp. arctolitoralis (Jurtz. & V.V. Petrovsky) M.H.
Jørg. & Elven
Table 1: Vascular plant species new to the Canadian Arctic
Archipelago (CAA) since the publication of Aiken et al. (2007).
Records are based on field collections and literature sources,
including Gillespie et al. (in review), Consaul et al. (2008),
Harris (2006), Elven and Al-Shebaz (2008), Al-Shehbaz and
Mulligan (2013), Solstad (2009), and Elven et al. (2011).
R. BullR. Bull
NOVEMBER 7TH, 2014
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.