Tree spinach
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Tree spinach ( Chenopodium giganteum ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Chenopodium giganteum | ||||||||||||
| D. Don |
Tree spinach ( Chenopodium giganteum ), also Riesengänsefuß called, is a species of the genus of goose foot ( Chenopodium ).
description
The spinach tree is an annual herbaceous plant that reaches heights of up to 3 meters. The stem axis stands upright and is strongly branched in the upper part. The sturdy stem is striped reddish-green or reddish-purple and measures up to 5 centimeters at the base.
The leaves are light green on top and dark green on the underside and are petiolate. They are almost bare or floury on the top. The blades are rhombic to ovate or three-lobed with a longer central lobe and measure up to 20 centimeters in length and 16 centimeters in width, the leaves decrease in size upwards. Young leaves are often red in color. The leaf base is broadly wedge-shaped and the leaf edge serrated irregularly wavy. The tip is usually blunt. The upper leaves are ovate or ovate-lanceolate and covered with golden-yellow or reddish blister hairs when young , which give the leaves a floured appearance.
Spinach trees bloom from June (Nepal) or July (China) to September. The inflorescence consists of large, terminal, floured panicles that hang down when the fruit is ripe. The hermaphroditic flowers are clustered together or individually. The inflorescence consists of five green or dark purple, egg-shaped tepals with a membranous edge. There are five stamens.
The fruit is lenticular, with a membranous pericarp. The horizontal seed reaches a diameter of 1.5 mm. The black or reddish-black seed coat shows net-like lines.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 54.
distribution
The original distribution area of the tree spinach is probably in the Himalayas, in India and Nepal, east to Tibet. The species occurs here in weed vegetation and in gardens, cultivated as a vegetable plant; some botanists suspect that it first emerged in culture, through the selection of large wild clans from the species aggregate of Chenopodium album , and that it later became wild again. Possibly the species spread archaeophytically in China and all of Southeast Asia, in many countries, including China, it is still cultivated as a vegetable in gardens today. Neophytically it can be found today in all warm temperate areas, in Europe almost exclusively in the Mediterranean region. In Germany, all wildings of the species are considered unstable. Spinach trees were also introduced in Madagascar.
Systematics
The first description of Chenopodium giganteum was made in 1825 by David Don .
The following synonyms are given in the Plant List (published by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden): Chenopodium giganteum D. Don are Chenopodium album subsp. amaranthicolor H.J. Coste & A.Reyn. , Chenopodium album var. Centrorubrum Makino , Chenopodium album var. Purpurascens (Jacq.) Kuntze , Chenopodium amaranticolor (HJCoste & A.Reyn.) HJCoste & A.Reyn. , Chenopodium atriplicis L.f. , Chenopodium bonariense Moq. (nom. invalid.), Chenopodium centrorubrum (Makino) Nakai , Chenopodium elegantissimum Koidz. , Chenopodium leucospermum Schrad. , Chenopodium mairei H.Lév. , Chenopodium punctulatum Scop. , Chenopodium purpurascens Jacq. , Chenopodium purpurascens Gadec. and Chenopodium rubricaule Schrad. ex Moq.
The clan is difficult to define and name. Although striking, partly red-colored goosefoot species from India reached the botanical gardens of Europe as early as the 18th and 19th centuries, botanists could not agree on the correct name for decades. The attribution was also made more difficult by the fact that there are numerous, morphologically divergent, variable forms and clans and that these easily hybridize with other goosefoot species, so that some forms cultivated in gardens turned out to be hybrids. It is possible that several species are actually hidden under the name Chenopodium giganteum . According to a taxonomic revision of the Nepalese species of the genus in 2014, the correct name of the clan would actually be Chenopodium bengalense (Lam.) Spielm. ex Steud. Since Lamarck's original description of Atriplex bengalensis was based on plants in an early stage of flowering, the assignment may have long been overlooked. It is not yet clear whether the authors' view will prevail. The name was taken over into the EPPO database .
use
The leaves of the tree spinach can be used like spinach ( Spinacia oleracea ) cooked or eaten as a salad. However, the plants contain small amounts of saponins and larger amounts of oxalic acid , which can be detrimental to the digestion. The seeds can also be eaten cooked.
The sturdy stems are used as walking sticks.
Because of the striking leaf color, the species is occasionally grown as an ornamental plant. The variety Chenopodium giganteum 'Magenta Spreen', which stays a little lower and has particularly conspicuous leaves, is particularly popular.
swell
literature
- Gelin Zhu, Sergei L. Mosyakin, Steven E. Clemants: Chenopodium giganteum . In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Eds.): Flora of China . Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 2003, ISBN 1-930723-27-X , pp. 382 (English). , PDF (sections description, usage).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Gelin Zhu, Sergei L. Mosyakin, Steven E. Clemants: Chenopodium giganteum . In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Eds.): Flora of China . Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 2003, ISBN 1-930723-27-X , pp. 382 (English). , PDF file (sections Description, Use).
- ↑ Alexander P. Sukhorukov & Maria Kushunina (2014): Taxonomic revision of Chenopodiaceae in Nepal. Phytotaxa 191 (1): 10-44.
- ↑ Karol Marhold: IAPT / IOPB chromosome data 1 . In: Taxon . tape 55 , no. 2 , May 2006, p. 443-445 ( iopb.org [PDF]). PDF ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Chenopodium giganteum Don, giant goosefoot . in FloraWeb, online information service of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) about wild plant species in Germany.
- ↑ David Don: Prodromus Florae Nepalensis. J. Gale, London 1875, p. 75, digitized
- ^ Entry in The Plant List , accessed Jan. 25, 2012
- ↑ Paul Aellen (1929): Chenopodium amaranticolor: Coste and Reynier, Ch. Purpurascens “Jacquin”, Ch. Giganteum Don, Ch. Quinoa Willd., Ch. Moquinianum Aellen and X Ch. Reynieri Ludwig and Aellen: a nomenclature and systematic study . Reports of the Swiss Botanical Society (= Bulletin de la Société Botanique Suisse) 38: 5-23.
- ↑ Chenopodium bengalense. EPPO Global Database
- ↑ a b Entry in Plants For A Future
- ↑ A leafy green named magenta spreen, by Barbara Damrosch . The Washington Post, August 29, 2012.
- ↑ Alys Fowler: Tree spinach . Article, The Guardian (International Edition), July 8, 2011.
