Oreomecon polaris is an Arctic species of plant in the poppy family.
Description Oreomecon polaris is a small plant with as dense to somewhat loose tuft of basal leaves. It grows just tall.
Its leaves reach long with a leaf stem as much as half as long as the leaf itself. They are blue-green to green on both sides and broadly lanceolate, shaped like a wide spear head, to more or less egg-shaped. Each leaf's sides are divided into two or three pairs of lobes.
The flowers are yellow to white in color and as much as in diameter. They are found on the curving, leafless stems that are densely covered in dark hairs. Blooming can occur in June or July.
Taxonomy Oreomecon polaris was scientifically described as a subspecies of Papaver radicatum named polare in 1923 by the botanist Alexander Tolmachov. It was raised to species status as Papaver polare in 1949 in a publication by Ivan Aleksandrovich Perfiljev. It was moved to the genus Oreomecon in 2023 by Denis A. Krivenko. It has synonyms.
Table of Synonyms Name Year Rank Notes Oreomecon cornwallisensis 2024 species = het. Oreomecon dahliana subsp. polaris 2024 subspecies ≡ hom. Oreomecon uschakovii 2024 species = het. Papaver cornwallisense 1956 species = het. Papaver dahlianum var. hadacianum 1955 variety = het. Papaver dahlianum subsp. polare 2000 subspecies ≡ hom. Papaver langeanum 1960 species = het. Papaver nudicaule var. albiflorum 1880 variety = het. Papaver polare 1949 species ≡ hom. Papaver radicatum var. albiflorum 1912 variety = het., nom. illeg. Papaver radicatum f. glabriusculum 1895 form = het. Papaver radicatum f. parvifolium 1931 form = het. Papaver radicatum subsp. polare 1923 subspecies ≡ hom. Papaver radicatum f. pygmaeum 1895 form = het. Papaver rubroaurantiacum subsp. langeanum 1923 subspecies = het. Papaver uschakovii 1973 species = het. Papaver uschakovii subsp. tichomirovii 1979 subspecies = het. Notes: ≡ homotypic synonym ; = heterotypic synonym
Range Oreomecon polaris is native to many areas of the Arctic including Nunavut in northern Canada and Greenland. It grows in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the far north of Europe and also to much of northern Russia from Europe to western Siberia. They can be found from sealevel to in elevation.
It grows on nearly barren areas of the Arctic tundra in both rocky and clay soils.
References Citations
Sources Web sources
External links
Oreomecon polaris on iNaturalist