Festuca edlundiae S.G. Aiken, Consaul, & Lefkovitch

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 : 205-206

Festuca edlundiae S.G. Aiken, Consaul, & Lefkovitch

Figures 11B, 12B

Materials examined. CANADA – Nunavut • Ellesmere Island, CFS Alert ; 82°26′58″N, 062°33′50″W; 198 m a.s.l.; 17 Jul. 2019; habitat: mesic, with polygonal patterned ground made of till and rocks, dominated by Phippsia

algida (Solander) R. Brown, Juncus biglumis , and moss; QFA0635542 • same locality; 82°26′42″N, 062°12′12″W; 184 m a.s.l.; 23 Jul. 2019; habitat: xeric, with polygonal patterned ground made of till and rocks, and sparse dominance of Saxifraga oppositifolia ; QFA0635543 .

Identification. Plants 5.5–7.5 cm high; herbaceous; caespitose. Fibrous roots present. Stems 4.5–7.0 cm long; prostrate, semi-prostrate, or ascending; glabrous. Leaves basal and cauline. Sheath margins glabrous. Ligules 0.4– 0.5 mm long. Basal leaf blades 20–26 mm long, 0.4–0.7 mm wide; linear; rolled in bud; abaxial surface glabrous or scabrous; adaxial surface glabrous; margins scabrous or glabrous. Flag leaf blades 5–14 mm long, 0.3–0.4 mm wide; tip linear. Inflorescence a dense panicle; 11–20 mm long. Branches at lowest inflorescence node 1–2; 1.1–3.2 mm long. Pedicels scabrous. Spikelets 6.0– 7.9 mm long, 3.3–3.8 mm wide. Florets per spikelet 2–4. First glumes 1.8–2.2 mm long; lanceolate; surface glabrous; margins glabrous; apices acuminate. Second glumes 2.4–4.3 mm long (shorter than the lowest floret); ovate; veins 1–3; surface glabrous; margins ciliate; apices acute. Lemmas 3.2–4.1 mm long, 0.7–0.9 mm wide; lanceolate; rounded on the back; veins 5; surface dull and sparsely scabrous; apices ciliate; awned. Awn 0.9–1.3 mm long; arising from the tip. Palea 3.6–3.8 mm long; veins scabrous. Rachilla between first and second lemmas 0.9–1.0 mm long. An- droecium with 3 stamens and 1.0– 1.9 mm long anthers. Gynoecium with 2 styles.

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