Discussion

Most plants referable to Hieracium are apomictic (reproducing from asexually produced seeds). Apomictic reproduction often results in perpetuation of morphologic variants at populational and regional levels. Temptation to name such variants as species has proven irresistible to some botanists; upward of 9,000 species names have been published in Hieracium. Circumscriptions of “species” in Hieracium seem to be more artificial than in most genera of composites. Under these circumstances, I feel it would be irresponsible to recognize any infraspecific taxa here. For the most part, the “species” recognized here are those that have been recognized in local and regional floras of the past 50 or so years. Accepted names and/or changes in synomymies for some species reflect changes suggested by J. H. Beaman (1990), A. Cronquist (1980), and E. G. Voss (1972–1996, vol. 3). I have maintained a traditional generic circumscription of Hieracium. Some other botanists exclude some species (including numbers 1–6 here) from Hieracium and treat them in Pilosella Hill, which differs from Hieracium in having stolons often produced, ribs of cypselae slightly projecting distally, and bristles of the pappi in one series. For Greenland, T. W. Böcher et al. (1968) reported 18 species of Hieracium: 16 said to be endemic to Greenland plus H. alpinum Linnaeus (known from Greenland and Eurasia) and H. groenlandicum Arvet-Touvet (= H. vulgatum Fries; known from Greenland and continental North America). Following H. J. Scoggan (1978–1979, part 4), I have placed 15 names of Greenland “endemics” as synonyms of other names. The type of the 16th “endemic,” H. trigonophorum Oskarsson, is probably conspecific with that of H. alpinum. In my key and descriptions, “piloso-hirsute” refers to surfaces with scattered to crowded, tapered, whiplike, straight or curly, smooth to ± barbellate hairs mostly (0.5–)2–8(–15+) mm (sometimes called “setae”); “stellate-pubescent” refers to surfaces with scattered to crowded, ± dendritically branched (often called, but seldom truly, “stellate”) hairs mostly 0.05–0.2+ mm (such surfaces are sometimes described as “floccose”); and “stipitate-glandular” refers to surfaces with scattered to crowded gland-tipped hairs mostly 0.2–0.8(–1.2+) mm. Surfaces of stems, leaves, peduncles, and phyllaries may be glabrous or may bear one, two, or all three of the types of hairs mentioned here; other induments are seldom encountered in hieraciums of the flora area. Given the complexity of the reproductive modes among the plants and the likelihood of misidentifications of vouchers, I have not included chromosome numbers for species. Sexual hieraciums are usually diploids (2n = 18) and the apomictic hieraciums are usually triploids (2n = 27).