Poison buttercup
| Poison buttercup | ||||||||||||
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Venom buttercup ( Ranunculus sceleratus ) |
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| Ranunculus sceleratus | ||||||||||||
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The poison buttercup ( Ranunculus sceleratus ) is a species of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) and is widespread in the northern hemisphere . Its German common name refers to the toxicity, which is due to the high content of about 2.5% protoanemonin . A similarly high value can also be found in some other buttercup species , with most it is significantly lower.
description
Appearance
The poison buttercup grows as an annual to perennial herbaceous plant that reaches heights of about 10 to 80 cm. The fibrous roots are almost the same thickness. The hollow, upright stem , branched in the upper area, is hairy bald to sparsely downy.
Foliage leaf
The leaves are basal and arranged alternately on the stem. The three to thirteen basal leaves and the lower stem leaves consist of a petiole and a leaf blade . Their almost bald to sparsely downy hairy petiole is 1.2 to 15 cm long. With a length of 1 to 5 cm and a width of 1.5 to 6.8 cm a pentagonal, kidney-shaped, broadly egg-shaped to almost circular leaf blade with a broad heart-shaped blade base and it is deeply three-part; The central leaf segment is wedge-shaped or rhombic and three-lobed, these leaf lobes are smooth or one to two-toothed, the two lateral leaf segments are obliquely wide, obovate or obliquely wedge-shaped and unequal two-lobed or two-lobed up to the middle. Sometimes they are undivided, then they are notched to notched-lobed and the end is rounded or sometimes blunt. The spreading surfaces are bare or the underside of the leaves is hairy down. The upper stalk leaves are short stalked and have a leaf blade with a wedge-shaped base and three lanceolate leaf segments.
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Inflorescence and flower
The poison buttercup blooms between January and November, depending on its location. Many flowers and foliage -like bracts stand together in umbrella- shaped inflorescences . The often furrowed flower stalks are 0.5 to 1.5 cm long and glabrous or sparsely hairy.
The hermaphrodite, radial symmetry , five-fold flowers have a diameter of 0.4 to 0.8 cm. The cylindrical flower base (receptacle) is hairy or bald or downy. The three to usually five sepals, which are already bent back near the base, are ovate-elliptical with a length of 2 to 5 mm and a width of 1 to 3 mm and are fluffy hairy or glabrous on the outside. The three to mostly five free, yellow petals are obovate with a length of 2.2 to 4.5 mm and a width of 1.4 to 2.4 mm. On the petals there are nectaries around which, but not on them, there are weakly developed scales. There are 10 to 19 stamens with ellipsoidal anthers. There are numerous carpels on which, because a stylus is missing, the 0.1 mm large stigma still recognizable on the ripe fruit is located.
fruit
With a length of 3 to 13 mm and a width of 1.5 to 7 mm, ellipsoidal to cylindrical collective fruits stand together many individual fruits. The bald individual fruits ( achenes ) are 1 to 1.2 in length and 0.8 to 1 mm in diameter obliquely obovate, slightly flattened laterally, sometimes transversely two to three folds and a little swollen at the sutures, as well as one mostly straight, about 0.1 mm long beak (= the durable scar).
Chromosome number
The species is diploid , tetraploid or octoploid, its chromosome number is 2n = 16, 32 or 64.
ecology
The poison buttercup is an annual marsh plant that settles on dry muddy soil as a pioneer plant. She lives there amphibiously ; in the water with typical floating leaves. The flowers are arranged on a cylindrical flower axis, have uncovered nectaries and up to 100 ovaries .
Double-winged insects such as flies act as pollinators . Self-pollination ( autogamy ) has also been observed less frequently . The somewhat sticky fruits are often spread through the water and rarely stick to animals and are spread in this way. The poison buttercup also has long-lived seeds that germinate in spring (when the nights are getting shorter).
Toxicity
The poison buttercup has a pungent taste and is poisonous in all parts of the plant.
The main active ingredients are: ranunculin , anemonin and protoanemonin .
Symptoms of poisoning are: Severe general sensations such as numbness, dizziness, heaviness in the head, fainting, fast and weak pulse, severe stomach pain; after all, death can also occur.
The hay is harmless to animals; fatal poisoning can only occur if there is a large amount of ryegrass . This can also lead to gastroenteritis , hemorrhagic nephritis and central nervous excitement and cramps. Only an unusually large intake leads to death from cardiac and respiratory paralysis.
In humans - as in the burning buttercup and other buttercup species - the transition of the ranunculin contained in the plant to the strongly corrosive anemonine can lead to skin irritation, which manifests itself in itching, redness, swelling and blistering. However, painful boils and more or less deep tissue damage can also occur. Whole limbs can then look like a 2nd degree burn.
Therefore, the Danish term "beggar-Buttercup" is that beggar einrieben on visible parts of the body with the sap, thereby pathetic wounds with rash cause.
Occurrence
The poison buttercup is widespread in the northern hemisphere and occurs in both Eurasia and North America . It thrives in bodies of water and in damp meadows and is found mainly in very nutrient-rich, humus-rich muddy soils on bodies of water that occasionally overflow their banks. In Central Europe it is a character species of the Ranunculetum scelerati from the Bidention association.
Subspecies
The poison buttercup occurs in Europe in two subspecies:
- Ranunculus sceleratus subsp. reptabundus (Rupr.) Hultén , occurs in Europe only in northern Russia
- Ranunculus sceleratus subsp. sceleratus , is the common family in Western, Central and Eastern Europe.
swell
- Wang Wencai, Michael G. Gilbert: Ranunculus. In: Flora of China. Volume 6, 2001, p. 421: Ranunculus sceleratus - online. (Section Description and Occurrence)
- Alan T. Whittemore: Ranunculus. In: Flora of North America. Volume 3, 1997: Ranunculus sceleratus - online. (Section Description and Occurrence)
- Ruprecht Düll , Herfried Kutzelnigg : Pocket dictionary of plants in Germany and neighboring countries. The most common Central European species in portrait. 7th, corrected and enlarged edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-494-01424-1 .
- Lutz Roth, Max Daunderer, Kurt Kormann: Poisonous plants plant poisons. 6th edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86820-009-6 .
Web links
- Poison buttercup. In: FloraWeb.de.
- Poison buttercup . In: BiolFlor, the database of biological-ecological characteristics of the flora of Germany.
- Profile and distribution map for Bavaria . In: Botanical Information Hub of Bavaria .
- Ranunculus sceleratus L. In: Info Flora , the national data and information center for Swiss flora . Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- Distribution in the northern hemisphere according to: Eric Hultén , Magnus Fries: Atlas of North European vascular plants 1986, ISBN 3-87429-263-0
- Thomas Meyer: Data sheet with identification key and photos at Flora-de: Flora von Deutschland (old name of the website: Flowers in Swabia )
- Poisonous plant.
- Datasheet for Ranunculus sceleratus .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jaakko Jalas, Juha Suominen: Atlas florae europaeae . Volume 8 (Nymphaeaceae to Ranunculaceae). Helsinki 1989, ISBN 951-9108-07-6 , p. 181.
- ↑ Josef Domes: Notes on the pharmacology of the buttercup. In: Würzburger medical historical reports 7, 1989, p. 337 f.
- ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 409.