Alpine helmet

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Alpine helmet
Alpine helmet (Bartsia alpina)

Alpine helmet ( Bartsia alpina )

Systematics
Asterids
Euasterids I
Order : Mint family (Lamiales)
Family : Summer root family (Orobanchaceae)
Genre : Bartsia
Type : Alpine helmet
Scientific name
Bartsia alpina
L.

The alpine helmet ( Bartsia alpina ), also called alpine bearded helmets , brown helmets , alpine mourning flowers or bearded flowers, is the only Central European plant species of the genus Bartsia from the family of summer root plants (Orobanchaceae).

description

Indument of the stem and the opposite leaves
Illustration from storm
Zygomorphic flower and indument

Vegetative characteristics

The alpine helmet is a perennial, herbaceous plant and reaches heights of 10 to 20, rarely up to 30 centimeters. The above-ground parts of the plant are hairy. The blunt, four-edged stem is hairy in the lower area and tinged with glandular-shaggy and red in the upper area.

The criss-cross leaves are sessile. The short hairy leaf blade is egg-shaped with a rounded or weakly heart-shaped base and mostly dark purple from the edge, especially underneath. The edge is notched and sawn and slightly rolled over in the area of ​​the teeth. The lowest leaves gradually merge into the scale leaves of the rhizome .

Generative characteristics

The flowering period extends from June to August. The almost horizontally protruding flowers sit individually in the upper leaf axils. The short flower stalk is hairy.

The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic with a double flower envelope . The glandular-shaggy hairy and violet-overflowing calyx is 6 to 8 millimeters long and increases in size after the anthesis . The calyx lobes are narrow triangular and almost equal to each other. The calyx-tube is roehrig-bell-shaped. The dark purple corolla, which is slightly lighter in color towards its base, is 18 to 22 millimeters long and has two lips. The upper lip is laterally flattened, helmet-shaped, undivided and longer than the lower lip. The lower lip has three roughly the same size, straight protruding, but slightly inflected, full-margined corolla lobes at the tip. The stamens are usually enclosed by the upper lip. The anthers are hairy with white wool. The protruding ovary is hairy without glands. The stylus is enclosed by the upper lip or a part of it is outstanding.

The fruit is 10 to 12 millimeters long and hairy. The white or dirty-white to pale-ocher-colored seeds are about 2 millimeters long and ovoid and have particularly high, somewhat wavy wing edges on the back.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 12, 24 or 36.

ecology

The alpine helmet is a hemicryptophyte and semi-parasite (semi-parasite). Immediately after germination, the seedlings form haustoria (suction organs) with which they attach themselves to the roots of neighboring plants, their host plants.

Anthocyanins are formed particularly intensively in the Alpine climate , as the sugars formed by assimilation at night can no longer be converted into starch by many plants because the temperatures are often too low , but only into these dyes. The dark color of the inflorescence comes from anthocyanins (blue-red coloring matter), which even overlay the chlorophyll in the upper leaves .

Habit, leaves and inflorescences

Occurrence

The alpine helmet has a Holarctic distribution in the northern hemisphere , with occurrences in the western Palae and the eastern Nearctic . Sites on the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland connect the areas of distribution of the Old and New World . This distribution pattern is characteristic of amphi-Atlantic plant species.

In Europe, the alpine helmet is one of the species with arctic-alpine (boreo-alpine) distribution, since apart from the occurrences in Scandinavia and western Siberia, only the Pyrenees , Alps and the mountains of eastern and south- eastern Europe are populated. Locations in the Black Forest and the Vosges represent outposts of the alpine distribution area and, like the occurrences on Gotland as well as in England and Scotland, can be interpreted as Ice Age relics .

The preferred locations in Central Europe are calcareous meadows , spring and flat moors and clearings in subalpine forests. The habitats can generally be characterized as moist and rich in bases. The alpine helmet thrives at altitudes of 1000 to 3000 meters. In the Allgäu Alps , it rises on the Große Steinscharte in Bavaria to an altitude of 2260 meters and on the southwest slope of the Linkerskopf up to 2150 meters. In the Black Forest, the alpine helmet is a character species of the Bartsio-Caricetum fuscae from the association Caricion fuscae, but also occurs in the high altitude areas of the Alps in societies of the order Seslerietalia albicantis or the association Poion alpinae.

Taxonomy

The first publication of Bartsia alpina was done by Carl von Linné . The specific epithet alpina means "from the Alps". Carl von Linné named the genus Bartsia in memory of his friend, the German colonial doctor and naturalist Johann Bartsch , who fell victim to the tropical climate in Suriname / South America at the age of 28 .

literature

  • Xaver Finkenzeller, Jürke Grau: Alpine flowers. Recognize and determine (=  Steinbach's natural guide ). Mosaik, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-576-11482-3 .
  • Wolfgang Adler, Karl Oswald, Raimund Fischer: Excursion flora of Austria . Ed .: Manfred A. Fischer. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-8001-3461-6 .
  • Hans Christian Weber: Parasitism of flowering plants. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1993, ISBN 3-534-10529-X .
  • Ulf Molau: The genus Bartsia (Scrophulariaceae, Rhinanthoideae). In: Opera Botanica , Volume 102, Copenhagen 1990, pp. 1-99.
  • Hans Christian Weber: Schmarotzer: Plants that live on others . Belser, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-7630-1834-4
  • K. Taylor, FJ Rumsey: Bartsia alpina L. - Biological Flora of the British Isles No. 231 - In: The journal of Ecology , Volume 91, Issue 2003, pp. 908-921 doi : 10.1046 / j.1365-2745.2003.00809.x .
  • MM Kwak: Early flowers of Bartsia alpina (Scrophulariaceae) and the visitation by bumblebees. In: Acta botanica Neerlandica , Volume 45, 1996, pp. 355-366, ISSN  0044-5983 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bartsia alpina L., Alpen-Bartschie. In: FloraWeb.de.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Dimitri Hartl: Scrophulariaceae. In: Dimitri Hartl, Gerhard Wagenitz (Hrsg.): Illustrated flora of Central Europe. Pteridophyta, Spermatophyta . Founded by Gustav Hegi. 2nd, completely revised edition. Volume VI. Part 1: Angiospermae: Dicotyledones 4 (1) (Scrophulariaceae - Plantaginaceae) . Carl Hanser and Paul Parey, Munich and Berlin / Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-446-10471-2 , pp. 315–321 (published in deliveries 1965–1974).
  3. ↑ a b 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.  847 .
  4. ↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 2. IHW-Verlag, Eching near Munich, 2004, ISBN 3-930167-61-1 .

Web links

Commons : Alpenhelm ( Bartsia alpina )  - album with pictures, videos and audio files