Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1993, Page 89

SALIX IN THE FAROE ISLANDS AND THEIR AFFINITY WITH THE POPULATIONS IN ICELAND 93
Figure 2.
Salix lanata L. originating near Bjarnadalsá on Streymoy, cultivated in J. Dahl’s garden, Skræddaragøta, Hoyvík.
beginning labelled as Salix glauca L. and as
such they are reported in the main works
about the flora of the Faroe Islands for the
most part of this century (Ostenfeld, 1901;
Ostenfeld and Grontved, 1934; Rasmussen
1936, 1952; Hansen, 1966). Floderus deter-
mined the specimens in Copenhagen and
Tórshavn as hybrids Salix arctica x glauca,
S. arctica x arctophila x glauca or even S.
arctica x glauca x phylicifolia. Floderus
circumscribed what he called true or non-
hybridogene forms of a species in a very
narrow sense. The circumscriptions were
based on few morphological characters and
wherever those characters overlapped he
considered the specimens as hybrids
(Floderus, 1923: 121-157). He obviously
regarded the Faroese specimens as deviat-
ing from true Salix glauca and containing
some characters from S. arctica. It is worth
mentioning that Floderus determined the
Icelandic specimens he saw as similar hy-
brids. He was of the opinion that in Green-
land true Salix arctica and S. glauca were
rare but the main bulk of the population
there were hybrids.
In Flora Europaea, Rechinger (1964) no-
tices that Salix glauca from Iceland and the
Faroe Islands was considered as a distinct
species, Salix callicarpaea Trautv., but af-
ter examining the Faroese specimens in
Copenhagen the Salix-expert Skvortsov