Silene undulata

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Silene undulata
African dream root (Silene undulata)

African dream root ( Silene undulata )

Systematics
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Carnation family (Caryophyllaceae)
Subfamily : Caryophylloideae
Tribe : Sileneae
Genre : Glue herbs ( Silene )
Type : Silene undulata
Scientific name
Silene undulata
Aiton
Habit with leaves

Silene undulata ( isiXhosa : undlela Ziimhlophe , dt .: "white paths"), even African dream root called, is a plant that the family of the Pink family belongs (Caryophyllaceae). It occurs in southern Africa .

description

Vegetative characteristics

Silene undulata grows as a perennial herbaceous plant and reaches heights of up to 60 cm. Many parts of the plant are covered with sticky glands. The basal leaves are spatulate-elongated, up to 15 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, and narrow to a stalk. The leaves distributed on the stem are up to 8 cm long and 2 cm wide, but are usually smaller and at most very short stalked. The leaf margin is smooth to sometimes wavy.

Generative characteristics

The terminal, paniculate , zymous inflorescence contains only a few flowers and bracts, which are very similar to the upper stem leaves, but become progressively narrower. The flowering period extends from October to April. The flowers have a very aromatic smell of cloves, jasmine and bananas. The flower stalks are about 0.6 to 2 cm long. The flowers open at night and usually roll inward during the day. The hermaphrodite flowers are fivefold. The cylindrical, but widened calyx when fruit ripe is ten-ribbed, 2.5 to 3.5 cm long and about 0.5 cm wide with 5 mm long calyx teeth. The five white or pink cream-colored petals are deeply lobed with a nail that is slightly longer than the calyx. The toothed crown scales are about 1.5 mm long. There are two circles with five stamens each, the longer ones about 3.5 cm and the shorter ones about 1.7 cm long. The unilocular ovary is oblong-ovate. The three styluses are about 1.5 cm long.

The elongated egg-shaped capsule fruit has a length of 1.2 to 1.8 cm and a diameter of about 0.8 cm. It opens from above with flaps that are bent back over a length of about a third to half and contains many seeds. The almost black seeds are about 1.2 mm × 1 mm in size and kidney-shaped.

Location

The plant is native to Zimbabwe and South Africa. It occurs in open forest and grasslands, usually in areas with higher rainfall. The perennial plant is frost hardy.

Systematics

Silene undulata was born in 1789 by William Aiton in Hort. Kew. , 2, p. 96. The type specimen is a plant cultivated from a seed from the Cape Province in the meantime . A synonym for Silene undulata Ait. is Melandrium undulatum (Ait.) Rohrb.

One can distinguish between two subspecies:

  • Silene undulata subsp. polyantha J.C. Manning & Goldblatt : It occurs in Swaziland and in the South African provinces of southern Mpumalanga and the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal .
  • Silene undulata subsp. undulata (Syn .: Silene bellidifolia var. foliosa Fenzl , Silene bellidifolia var. stricta Fenzl , Silene bellidioides Sond. , Silene caffra Fenzl , Silene caffra Fenzl ex C. Muell. , Silene capensis Otth , Silene diurniflora Kunze , Silene eckloniana Sond. , Silene meyeri Fenzl , Silene thunbergii E. Mey . ): It is also called the African dream root. It is common in South Africa and Lesotho .

Traditional use

Xhosa shamans and healers regard the plant as a medicinal root that they use for healing and divination purposes. For the shamans of the Xhosa, the root is a means of connecting with one's ancestors through prophetic dreams in order to receive an answer to questions or causes of illness. The Xhosa names for Silene undulata are: ubulawu obumhlope, unozitholana, iinkomo yentaba and undlela ziimhlophe .

literature

Web links

Commons : Silene undulata  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e H. Wild: Caryophyllaceae in the Flora Zambesiaca , Vol. 1, Part 2, 1961: Silene undulata - online at KEW.
  2. ↑ "Rühlemann's herbs and scented plants": shelf life, location requirements and systematics on kraeuter-und-duftpflanze.de.
  3. ↑ a b c J. C. Manning, P. Goldblatt: A taxonomic revision of the southern African native and naturalized species of Silene L. (Caryophyllaceae). In: Bothalia. Volume 42, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 147–186, ( PDF )
  4. ↑ Ubulawu - Silene capensis on ololiuqui.org.
  5. ↑ JF Sobiecki: A review of plants used in divination in southern Africa and Their psychoactive effects. ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 197kB) in Southern African Humanities. Vol. 20, 2008, 333-351. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sahumanities.org.za
  6. ↑ Jean-Francois Sobiecki: Psychoactive Medicines Spiritual and Healing Dynamics in the initiation process of Southern Bantu Diviners. In: Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 44, 2012, pp. 216-223, doi : 10.1080 / 02791072.2012.703101 .
  7. ↑ M. Hirst, Manton: Root, dream and myth. The use of the oneirogenic plant Silene capensis among the Xhosa of South Africa. Eleusis. In: Journal of Psychoactive Plants and Compounds. 4, 2000, 119-50.
  8. ^ AP Dold, ML Cocks: Preliminary list of Xhosa plant names from the Eastern Cape, South Africa. ( Memento of the original from February 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 448kB), In: Bothalia. 29 (2), 1999, 267-292 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bioculturaldiversity.co.za
  9. ^ Manton Hirst: Dreams and Medicines: The Perspective of Xhosa Diviners and Novices in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology. , Volume 5, Edition 2, 2005. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ipjp.org