198 Juncus arcticus Willd.

This polymorphic, widespread species comprises an intricate complex of lower taxa. For that reason, the distribution of these taxa is partly uncertain. Two European taxa are mapped, viz. the arctic-alpine subsp. arcticus with a circumpolar distribution and subsp. balticus (Willd.) Hyl. mainly restricted to seashores in N. Europe. Further, the E. Asiatic and Pacific subsp. sitchensis Engelm., and the N. American subsp. littoralis (Engelm.) Hult. with var. stenocarpus Buch. & Fem. and subsp. ater (Rydb.) Hult. are tentatively mapped. The species s. lat. belongs to the circumpolar plants (Hultén, Circumpol. I, p. 24 and map 18). Some taxa occur also in C. and S. America and New Caledonia, possibly indigenous at Ieast in some of these places. Cf. also Meusel et al. 1965, map p. 83.