Arctic willow
| Arctic willow | ||||||||||||
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Arctic willow ( Salix arctica ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Salix arctica | ||||||||||||
| Pall. |
The Arctic willow or Arctic willow ( Salix arctica ) is a plant from the genus of willow ( Salix ) within the family of the pasture plants (Salicaceae). Together with the arctic poppy ( Papaver radicatum ), this species is the furthest north living flowering plant ; both still survive at 80 ° north latitude.
description
Appearance, bark and leaf
The Arctic Willow grows as a small, creeping shrub (espalier shrub ) that typically only reaches heights of 1 to 15 cm, rarely 25 cm. Usually it grows individually, sometimes it forms colonies through runners. The main branches are lying to prostrate or upright. The yellow-brown, yellowish, grayish-brown, red-brown or brownish bark of the branches is not frosted and bare. The yellow-brown, red-brown or purple bark of the twigs is thin to thickly frosted, glabrous or sparse to very dense, soft to shaggy with spreading hairs ( trichomes ).
The alternate leaves arranged on the branches are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The 2 to 35 mm long petiole has no glands and is downy hairy on one side and deeply concave in cross section, but the edges do not cover the bald furrow. The herbaceous to leathery, flat to recurved leaf blades are elliptical (narrow-elliptical to.) With a length of 1 to 8.5 cm and a width of 5.5 to 60 mm, with a length / width ratio of 1 to 3.6 almost circular), circular, obovate-lanceolate or obovate (to broadly obovate). The base of the spread is pointed or blunt. The leaf margin, which is smooth or has one to three teeth per centimeter, has glandular hairs along its entire length or only near the base of the blade. The upper side of the leaf and is shiny or dull and usually bald or sparsely hairy. Stomata are either only on the underside of the leaf or also along the veins or at the tip of the upper side of the leaf. The underside of the leaf is bare or sparse, protruding or pressed, covered with long, silky, mostly straight or rarely wavy hair. The leaves of young plant specimens are yellowish-green, glabrous or sparsely covered on the underside with white, long, straight hairs ( trichomes ) directed towards the tip . There may be deciduous or scale-like stipules with a pointed upper end that will soon fall off.
Inflorescences, flowers and fruits
The Arctic Willow is dioeciously separated sex ( diocesan ). Before the leaves shoot when the leaf buds open, one to a few kitten-shaped inflorescences appear just below the tips of the previous year's growth, each with only a few flowers . The male catkins are 11 to 50 mm long and 5 to 18 mm wide, slender or stocky to almost spherical and contain densely packed flowers; they stand on 2 to 20 mm long flower stems on 2 to 13 mm long inflorescence shafts. The female catkins are 11 to 120 mm long and 8 to 18 mm wide, slender to squat or spherical and contain the flowers more or less densely packed; they stand on 2 to 80 mm long flower stems on 4 to 30 mm long inflorescence shafts. The brown to black or rarely light brown bracts have a length of 1.6 to 3.7 mm and are broadest in the middle or at the base; they are sparsely covered with straight hair over the entire surface and have a smooth or more or less strongly wavy edge. The male flowers usually have a nectar gland each above and below. The two stamens have a bare stamen. The initially purple, rarely later yellow anthers are ellipsoidal with a length of 0.4 to 0.9 mm. The female flowers are not lobed. The more or less hairy, flattened ovary contains 10 to 18 ovules . The 0.6 to 2.2 mm long stylus ends with a narrow-cylindrical, sometimes compact scar with 0.36 to 0.88 mm long lobes.
The mostly hairy or sometimes bald capsule fruits are 4 to 9 mm long.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 76 or 114. Tetraploidy and hexaploidy are detected in degrees of ploidy .
Occurrence
The natural range of the Arctic Willow extends in a circumpolar manner over the tundras of Europe , North America and Asia . But they can also be found in the mountainous areas of the temperate zone . It is well adapted to the harsh arctic and sub-arctic environment. No other wood plant is found that far north. You can still find them in the northernmost part of the north coast of Greenland .
Salix arctica prefers dry, cold, open, muddy peat moss swamps and the edges of muddy pools in the coarse sand soil.
Systematics
The first publication of Salix arctica was made in 1788 by Peter Simon Pallas in Flora Rossica , 1 (2), p 86. A homonym is Salix arctica R.Br. ex Richardson published in Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea , 1823, pp. 752-753. Synonyms of Salix arctica Pall. are: Salix anglorum auct. non Cham. , Salix anglorum var. Antiplasta Schneid. , Salix anglorum var. Araioclada Schneid. , Salix anglorum var. Kophophylla cutting. , Salix arctica subsp. crassijulis (Trautv.) Skvort. , Salix arctica subsp. tortulosa (Trautv.) Hultén , Salix arctica var. antiplasta (Schneid.) Fern. , Salix arctica var. Araioclada (Schneid.) Caterpillar , Salix arctica var. Brownei Anderss. , Salix arctica var. Kophophylla (Schneid.) Polunin , Salix arctica var. Pallasii (Anderss.) Kurtz , Salix arctica var. Tortulosa (Trautv.) Raup , Salix brownei (Anderss.) Bebb , Salix crassijulis Trautv. , Salix hudsonensis Schneid. , Salix pallasii Anderss. , Salix pallasii var. Crassijulis (Trautv.) Anderss. , Salix tortulosa Trautv. Salix arctica belongs to the Diplodictyae C.K. Tailors in the genus Salix .
use
The tender young sprouts of Salix arctica can be collected at the beginning of spring and, once the bark has been removed, eaten raw. Young willow leaves are an excellent source of vitamin C. They contain about seven to ten times as much vitamin C as oranges. Like most willows, it also contains aspirin- like compounds. A tea made from the bark has a similar effect to aspirin. Chewed bark can be used on minor burns and insect bites. Chewing the bark cleans the teeth and prevents tooth decay .
swell
- Salix arctica In: SG Aiken, MJ Dallwitz, LL Consaul, CL McJannet, RL Boles, GW Argus, JM Gillett, PJ Scott, R. Elven, MC LeBlanc, LJ Gillespie, AK Brysting, H. Solstad, JG Harris: Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago at DELTA. (Sections Description, Occurrence and Systematics)
- Cheng-fu Fang, Shi-dong Zhao & Alexei K. Skvortsov: Salicaceae. : Salix arctica , p. 242 - online with the same text as the printed work , In: CY Wu, PH Raven, DY Hong: Cycadaceae through Fagaceae , Volume 4, In: Flora of China Editorial Committee: Flora of China , Science Press and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing and St. Louis, 1999, ISBN 0-915279-70-3 . (Sections Description and Systematics)
Individual evidence
- ^ Salix arctica at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ↑ Usability of the arctic-willow - Salix arctica ( Memento from June 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Web links
- Juanita AR Ladyman: Salix arctica PDF at USDA - The Forest Service Web (en)
- G. Loren, 2003 Salix arctica at blueplanetbiomes.org . (en)
- Salix arctica in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.