Alpine bearberry

Alpine bearberry
	Alpine bearberry ( Arctostaphylos alpinus )
Systematics
	Asterids
Order :	Heather-like (Ericales)
Family :	Heather family (Ericaceae)
Subfamily :	Arbutoideae
Genre :	Bearberry ( Arctostaphylos )
Type :	Alpine bearberry
Scientific name
	Arctostaphylos alpinus
	( L. ) Explos.

Autumn colors

Flowers with whitish to pink crowns

Drupes

The alpine bearberry ( Arctostaphylos alpinus ) is a species of bearberry ( Arctostaphylos ) within the heather family (Ericaceae).

description

Vegetative characteristics

The alpine bearberry is a deciduous dwarf shrub with creeping branches up to 50 centimeters long. However, it only reaches heights of up to 10 centimeters with short ascending end shoots. The simple leaves are up to 5 centimeters long, obovate, finely serrated, ciliate long towards the base and have a somewhat wrinkled top with impressed veins .

Flowers and leaves appear simultaneously in May or June. In autumn, the leaves turn very noticeably bright purple.

Generative characteristics

The inflorescence contains only two to five flowers. The hermaphroditic flowers are radial symmetry and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The pink to greenish-white corolla is about 5 millimeters long, spherical-jug-shaped, with a small opening and ends in five outwardly curved corolla lobes.

The initially red, then ripe black stone fruits have a diameter of about 9 millimeters.

The basic chromosome number is x = 13.

Occurrence

The Alpine bearberry is widespread in the northern hemisphere in an arctic-alpine manner. It is found in temperate Asia from Siberia over the Altai to Mongolia ; in Europe it occurs far in the north and in the mountains with a southern border in Italy , the Balkans and Spain ; from Greenland to the arctic north to the US states of Maine and New Hampshire , this species occurs in North America. In Japan, Arctostaphylos alpina var. Japonica Hultén occurs.

The alpine bearberry is not common and grows on fine soil and moderately acidic moist humus in shady, long snow-covered dwarf shrub heaths and pine bushes in subalpine to subalpine altitudes . In the Allgäu Alps, it rises from 820 meters west of the Bruck power station in Bavaria to over 2000 meters. In Central Europe it is a character species of the Arctostaphylo alpinae-Loiseleurietum, but also occurs in the Erico-Rhododendretum hirsuti.

use

The fruits are eaten raw or cooked. They are very juicy, but a little bitter. They taste much better after cooking. The medical effects were examined.

Common names

There are also the common names Galopsstaude and Garlobsstauden.

literature

Herbert Reisigl: Flowers of the Alps . Pinguin-Verlag, Innsbruck 1990, ISBN 3-7016-2339-2 .
Manfred A. Fischer, Karl Oswald, Wolfgang Adler: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol . 3rd, improved edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9 .

Web links

Commons : Alpine Bearberry ( Arctostaphylos alpinus ) - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Arctostaphylos alpinus (L.) Spreng., Alpine bearberry. In: FloraWeb.de.
Profile and distribution map for Bavaria . In: Botanical Information Hub of Bavaria .
Alpine bearberry . In: BiolFlor, the database of biological-ecological characteristics of the flora of Germany.
Arctostaphylos alpina (L.) Spreng. In: Info Flora , the national data and information center for Swiss flora . Retrieved January 14, 2016.
Map for worldwide distribution (northern hemisphere)
Thomas Meyer: Bearberry data sheet with identification key and photos at Flora-de: Flora von Deutschland (old name of the website: Flowers in Swabia ).

Individual evidence

^ Arctostaphylos alpina in Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 2, IHW, Eching 2004, ISBN 3-930167-61-1 , p. 305.
^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp. 732 .
^ Arctostaphylos alpina in Plants For A Future
^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, p. 38, archive.org .

[GRIN-1] Arctostaphylos alpina in Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.

[Dörr-Lippert-2] Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 2, IHW, Eching 2004, ISBN 3-930167-61-1 , p. 305.

[Oberdorfer2001-3] Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp. 732 .

[PFAF-4] Arctostaphylos alpina in Plants For A Future

[Pritzel1882-5] Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, p. 38, archive.org .