A List of Hepaticae from West-Central Alberta

Abstract

Twenty-three families, 38 genera, 75 species, 3 subspecies and 3 varieties of Hepaticae are reported from the mountains and foothills of westcentral Alberta, Canada. Cephalozia bicuspidata subsp. ambigua, Lophozia ventricosa var. silvicola and Scapania degenii var. dubia are reported as new to the province. This is a report of collections of hepatics made in the west-central area of Alberta, Canada, during August 1975. Also included are specimens cited elsewhere (Bird & Hong, 1975; Bird & Ogilvie, 1964; Frye & Clark, 1937-1947; MacFadden, 1927; Schuster, 1958, 1966-1974; Vitt, 1973a, b). Collections were made at 14 localities, four of these in Jasper National Park, two in Willmore Wilderness Area, five in the Grande Cache-Entrance Provincial Park Areas and three in the Edson Area (Fig. 1). The vegetation of the areas studied ranges from rich fen sites to alpine tundra. Picea mariana and/or Larix laricina are dominant trees of the mire sites, while the more open areas are dominated by Salix and Betula shrubs. Upland vegetation in the foothills region is dominated by Pinus contorta var. latifolia and Picea glauca, with occasional Populus tremuloides on slopes and alluvial deposits and P. balsamifera on lowland sites. Sites within the mountains include those forested with Picea engelmanni and Abies lasiocarpa as well as those of alpine and subalpine tundra. Collections reported here include approximately 350 specimens collected by the authors as well as reports of hepatics from within the area studied. The collections are not sufficient to include all taxa present in the Jasper-Edson areas of Alberta. However, so few reports of hepatics from the Canadian Rocky Mountains are available that we felt this preliminary list was worth presenting. Many of the species collected in this study had not been collected previously in the Jasper-Edson area or reported in the literature. Phytogeographically, the species collected fall into seven broad groups. Of the 81 species known from the area, 37 are circumboreal and found in arctic, boreal, montane and alpine habitats. These can be considered widespread in the northern portion of the Northern Hemisphere (e.g., Anastrophyllum michauxii, A. minutum, Arnellia fennica, Blepharostoma trichophyllum, Geocalyx graveolens, Lophozia floerkei, Lophozia incisa and Scapania irrigua). Twelve taxa occur in circumboreal habitats rang1The senior author thanks President Msgr. Anthony Brown, Dean Dr. Francis DiRocco, Chairman Edward Peressini and Rev. Francis McInnis for their assistance. This research was supported in part by the Mary Wilson Fund Award from the College of Great Falls to W. S. Hong and by National Research Council of Canada Grant A6390 to D. H. Vitt. We wish to acknowledge W. L. Peterson and D. G. Horton as excellent associates while in the field. 2 Department of Biology, College of Great Falls, Great Falls, Montana 59405. ' Department of Botany, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.111 on Tue, 09 Aug 2016 05:50:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 1976] HONG & VITT: HEPATICAE OF ALBERTA, CANADA 181