Astelia hemichrysa
| Astelia hemichrysa | ||||||||||||
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Astelia hemichrysa |
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| Astelia hemichrysa | ||||||||||||
| ( Lam. ) Kunth |
Astelia hemichrysa is a species of Astelia within the Asteliaceae family . It isnativeto the two islands of Réunion and Mauritius .
description
Astelia hemichrysa is a partly epiphytic, perennial herbaceous plant . The leaves have a length of about 50 to 60 centimeters and a width of about 2.5 to 3 centimeters.
Astelia hemichrysa is dioeciously segregated ( diocesan ). The thick inflorescence stem is shorter than the leaves. The total inflorescence is composed of several 4 to 5 centimeters long paniculate partial inflorescences that curve outwards. There are five to six spathe per inflorescence. The always unisexual, small, white flower is threefold. The six bracts are free.
Each panicle part of the fruit stand bears between 15 and 20 berries. The pear-shaped berries have a bright green to yellowish color. In terms of taste, the berries are not reminiscent of pineapples, although this type of plant also bears the common name “pineapple marron” on Réunion . The berries contain small, black, wrinkled seeds.
ecology
Astelia hemichrysa , for example, grows in a marshland ( Macchabée-Bel Ombre Biosphere Reserve in Mauritius) together with Lycopodium , Pandanus , Sphagnum species and Blechnum attenuatum . By discovering that Astelia hemichrysa is not endemic to Réunion, but is also found in Mauritius , it was assumed that the spread of this plant was spread through the ingestion of the seeds by birds. It is assumed that bird species such as: Mauritius ring-necked parakeet ( Psittacula echo ), prickly- tailed parakeet ( Coracina typica ), Mauritius spectacled bird ( Zosterops chloronothos ) and Mauritius weaver ( Foudia rubra ) are responsible for the further distribution of the species on other islands around the Antarctic.
Occurrence
Originally it was assumed that Astelia hemichrysa is endemic to Réunion . Of which also went Carl Skottsberg yet to 1938th When RE Vaughan held the first Astelia specimen in Mauritius in 1938 , he discovered that it was the same species that can be found on Réunion. It occurs on both islands in the slightly higher rainforests, for example in the Black River Gorges National Park in Mauritius and on the "Ile de Bourbon", better known under the name of Réunion, there in the Fôret de Bélouve.
Systematics
This species was in 1786 under the name Dianella hemichrysa of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in Encyclopédie Méthodique, Botanique , 2, 276 first published . It was placed in Dracaena by Carl Peter Thunberg in 1808 , 5 under the name Dracaena hemichrysa in the genus Dracaena and by Jean Louis Marie Poiret in 1811 in Encyclopédie Méthodique, Botanique , Supplement 2, p. 349 under the name Cordyline hemichrysa in the genus Cordyline . By Karl Sigismund Kunth this species was in 1850 Enumeratio Plantarum Horti Botanici Berolinensis, ... , 5 S. 56 in the genus Astelia , under the name Astelia hemichrysa asked. Astelia hemichrysa Brongn. ex Cordem. is another synonym .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d C. Skottsberg: Recent Researches in Astelia B. and S. In: Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand , Volume 67, 1938, pp. 218-226.
- ↑ a b UNESCO data sheet of the Macchabée-Bel Ombre Biosphere Reserve .
- ↑ Photo "Pineapple marron" from the forest of Bélouve.
- ↑ First publication scanned at biodiversitylibrary.org
- ↑ The synonyms for R.Govaerts: Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families .
- ↑ Astelia hemichrysa at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ↑ Entry at IPNI.
