Arabian snail clover

Arabian snail clover
	Arabian snail clover ( Medicago arabica )
Systematics
	Eurosiden I
Order :	Fabales (Fabales)
Family :	Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily :	Butterflies (Faboideae)
Genre :	Snail clover ( Medicago )
Type :	Arabian snail clover
Scientific name
	Medicago arabica
	( L. ) Huds.

The Arabian snail clover ( Medicago arabica ), also called the spotted snail clover , is a species of the genus snail clover ( Medicago ) within the legume family (Fabaceae). Originally native to the Mediterranean area , this species is now distributed worldwide.

Description and ecology

illustration

Unripe legume ; one recognizes u. a. the snail-like coils

Ripe legume

Seeds

Vegetative characteristics

The Arabian snail clover grows as an annual herbaceous plant . The prostrate to upright stems are hairy and 15 to 50 centimeters long. The alternate leaves are composed of three broad, egg-shaped to heart-shaped leaflets. The leaflets are hairy from below, glabrous on top and characteristically spotted brown-red or purple-black in the middle.

Generative characteristics

The flowering period extends from April to June. The racemose inflorescence contains one to five flowers. The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The yellow petals form a 5 to 7 millimeter long crown in the typical shape of a butterfly flower . The shuttle is longer than the wings. Insect pollination takes place.

With a diameter of 5 to 10 millimeters, the first green, later yellow and finally brown legume has three to six rolled coils and inside transverse walls; on the outside it is covered with - often curved - spines, but not hairy. The spread of the diaspores takes place via the wind or the Velcro attachment of the hooked legumes to animals ( epichory ).

The basic chromosome number is n = 8; there is diploidy as 2n = 16.

Confusion with other species

Possible types of confusion include dwarf snail clover ( Medicago minima ), Medicago polymorpha (within which the Arabian snail clover was temporarily considered a variety) and other, incessantly introduced , diverse Medicago clans.

Occurrence

The original homeland of the Arabian snail is in the Mediterranean . It has been introduced sporadically in the Central European lowlands, on the lower Main , on the middle Neckar and in the southwestern Swiss Jura , where it has run wild. In Germany, for example, it is a firmly naturalized, albeit rare, neophyte and appeared here as early as the middle to the end of the 19th century (concrete year: 1862).

The Arabian snail clover thrives best in Central Europe on moderately dry, nutrient-rich, nitrogen-rich, fresh gravel or clay soils . It thrives in mild winter, warm summer and humid climates. Locations are mainly gappy, therophyte-rich ruderal corridors on paths, on dams, rubble and transshipment points, on rail tracks, in oat meadows and in sown ornamental meadows. The Arabian snail clover lives in central Europe in wastelands and roadsides, more rarely fallow land or fields. It grows in societies of the orders Sisymbrietalia or Arrhenatheretalia.

literature

Henning Haeupler, Thomas Muer: picture atlas of the fern and flowering plants of Germany . Ed .: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (= The fern and flowering plants of Germany . Volume 2 ). Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2000, ISBN 3-8001-3364-4 .
Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora . With the collaboration of Theo Müller. 6th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1990, ISBN 3-8001-3454-3 .
Rudolf Schubert, Walter Vent (ed.): Excursion flora for the areas of the GDR and the FRG. Founded by Werner Rothmaler. 7th edition. Volume 4: Critical Volume, People and Knowledge, Berlin 6th edition, 1986.

Individual evidence

↑ ^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. 588-589 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Dietmar Aichele, Heinz-Werner Schwegler: The flowering plants of Central Europe. 2nd Edition. Volume 2: Yew plants to butterfly flowering plants , Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-440-08048-X .
↑ Rudolf Schubert, Walter Vent (ed.): Excursion flora for the areas of the GDR and the FRG. Founded by Werner Rothmaler. 7th edition. Volume 4: Critical Volume, People and Knowledge, Berlin 6th edition, 1986.

Web links

Commons : Arabian snail clover ( Medicago arabica ) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Arabian snail clover. In: FloraWeb.de.

Arabian snail clover . 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 .

Medicago arabica (L.) Huds. In: Info Flora , the national data and information center for Swiss flora . Retrieved November 15, 2015.

Thomas Meyer: Data sheet with identification key and photos at Flora-de: Flora von Deutschland (old name of the website: Flowers in Swabia )

Photos at www.floralimages.co.uk ( click on "more pictures of Medicago arabica")

[Oberdorfer2001-1] 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. 588-589 .

[Aichele2000-2] Dietmar Aichele, Heinz-Werner Schwegler: The flowering plants of Central Europe. 2nd Edition. Volume 2: Yew plants to butterfly flowering plants , Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-440-08048-X .

[Rothmaler1986-3] Rudolf Schubert, Walter Vent (ed.): Excursion flora for the areas of the GDR and the FRG. Founded by Werner Rothmaler. 7th edition. Volume 4: Critical Volume, People and Knowledge, Berlin 6th edition, 1986.