Darwin's barberry
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Darwin's barberry ( Berberis darwinii ) |
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| Berberis darwinii | ||||||||||||
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Darwin's barberry ( Berberis darwinii ) is a plant from the family of Barberry (Berberidaceae). It comes from South America ( Argentina and Chile ). The species was discovered in 1835 by Charles Darwin on his voyage with the Beagle , described by William Jackson Hooker in Icones Plantarum in 1844 and introduced to Europe in 1849 by William Lobb .
description
Darwin's barberry is a medium-sized, evergreen shrub that can reach heights of up to 2 meters. The bark of young twigs and the thorns are reddish brown and thickly covered with reddish to whitish hairs; the bark of older branches is usually hairless, gray and furrowed in length. The hairy leaf spines are palmate in five to seven parts, the individual tips between 2 and 7 millimeters long.
The ovate-elongated to elliptical leaves are glossy dark green on the top, matt light green, glabrous on the underside, 1.4 to 3 centimeters long and 0.5 to 1.4 centimeters wide and have 1 to 6 leaf spines on the edge on both sides. The sheet ends in a thorn about 1 millimeter long. The petiole is up to 1 millimeter long and thick, the veins clear.
The hanging, racemose inflorescence is 2 to 6 inches long and consists of about 10 flowers. The flower stalks are 5 to 12 millimeters long. The persistent flowers are yellow to orange, red on the outside and 4.5 to 7 millimeters long and have 10 to 16 bracts .
The dark blue, frosted, spherical fruit has a diameter of 7 to 8 millimeters and ends in a 1.5 to 3 millimeter long permanent stylus. There are three to six seeds in a fruit that can be 3 to 4 millimeters long.
Darwin's barberry blooms in two batches from September to November and from December to March; it is mainly fruiting from December to March.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 28.
distribution
This species is native to southwest South America . The natural range of the plant species called michai or quelung in South America extends in Chile from Maule in the north to Aisén in the south and lies in Argentina in the west of the provinces Río Negro and Neuquén .
Originally a plant species of disturbed habitats, the species can now also be found widespread on roadsides.
Possible confusion
Berberis ilicifolia is very similar to Darwin's barberry, but has hairless three-part thorns and thicker, larger leaves.
Use as an ornamental plant
This species and cultivars of it are planted as an ornamental shrub in gardens and parks, especially in California , New Zealand and England . In Central Europe, the species blooms from late winter .
Hybrids
- With the box-leaved barberry ( Berberis microphylla ), Darwin's barberry forms the hybrid Berberis × antoniana Ahrendt . This is a small, evergreen shrub with little thorny branches. The deep yellow flowers stand individually on long stems. The berries are dark purple in color. It was grown at Daisy Hill Nursery in Northern Ireland.
- Darwin's barberry forms the hybrid Berberis 'Goldilocks' with Berberis valdiviana . The golden yellow flowers are numerous in red-stemmed clusters. The variety was grown in 1978 at the Hillier Nursery.
- Together with the linear-leaved barberry ( Berberis trigona ), Darwin's barberry forms the natural hybrid lolog barberry ( Berberis × lologensis Sandwith ).
- With the crowberry-leaved barberry ( Berberis empetrifolia ), Darwin's barberry forms the hybrid narrow-leaved barberry ( Berberis × stenophylla hort.).
- There are also hybrids with Berberis congestiflora observed.
Synonyms
Synonyms are:
swell
- Leslie R. Landrum: Revision of Berberis (Berberidaceae) in Chile and Adjacent Southern Argentina . In: Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden . tape 86 , no. 4 , 1999.
- Leslie R. Landrum: Berberidaceae . In: Flora de Chile . Vol. 2 (2), 2003.
- The Hillier Trees & Shrubs , ed. by John Kelly and John Hillier, 1st ed., Braunschweig, Thalacker-Medien, 1997, ISBN 3-87815-086-5
- Jost Fitschen : Woody flora , arr. By Franz H. Meyer, 11. Erw. and corrected edition, Wiebelsheim, Quelle and Meyer, 2002, ISBN 3-494-01268-7
- Gordon Cheers (Ed.): Botanica , Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne, 2002, ISBN 3-8290-0868-6
Individual evidence
- ↑ Berberis darwinii at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
