Luzula nivalis (Laestadius) Sprengel

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 : 200

Luzula nivalis (Laestadius) Sprengel

Materials examined. CANADA – Nunavut • Ellesmere Island, CFS Alert ; 82°28′24″N, 062°14′38″W; 109 m a.s.l.; 18 Jul. 2019; habitat: mesic on the margins of a river active during spring snowmelt; QFA0635563 .

Identification. Plants 4–14 cm high; herbaceous; caespitose or not caespitose. Fibrous roots and short rhizomes present. Stems 3.0– 12.5 cm long; erect; glabrous. Leaves basal and cauline. Sheaths brown or straw-colored; margins glabrous. Basal leaf blades 18–55 mm long, 0.8–4.0 mm wide; linear; flat; green and pale orange; abaxial and adaxial surfaces both glabrous; margins hairy, with nonglandular hairs; apices mucronulate or acute, calloused, and dark purple. Cauline leaf blades 12–20 mm long, 0.6– 1.5 mm wide; folded or involute. Inflorescence an anthela, with 1–4 glomerules and ≤60 flowers; 6–13 mm long. Bracts 4–12 mm long; not exceeding the inflorescence; lanceolate; red; margins glabrous; apices acute or acuminate. Bracteoles 2; 1.5–2.5 mm long. Tepals 6; 0.8–1.7 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm wide; ovate; dark brown or dark purple; margins hyaline; apices acute or obtuse. Androecium with 6 stamens and 0.3–0.5 mm long anthers. Gynoecium with 3 styles and 1 stigma per style. Fruit a capsule; 1.9– 2.5 mm long, 1.0– 1.4 mm wide; ovoid; slightly flattened; green to dark purple; with a small beak; glabrous.

Luzula nivalis is similar to L. confusa Lindeberg , also present on Ellesmere Island, but the two differ in the fol- lowing characters: L. nivalis has narrow, flat basal leaves (≤ 5 cm long, 2–4 mm wide), whereas L. confusa has larger, subcanaliculate to flat leaves (6–9 cm long, 1.5– 2.5 mm wide; Saarela et al. 2020); L. nivalis has leaves with calloused tip but not L. confusa ( Hay 2013) ; and L. nivalis has mucronulate leaf apices, whereas L. confusa has acuminate apices ( Saarela et al. 2020).

Orobanchaceae – Broomrape family