Brown cranesbill

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Brown cranesbill
Brown cranesbill (Geranium phaeum)

Brown cranesbill ( Geranium phaeum )

Systematics
Rosids
Eurosiden II
Order : Cranesbill (geraniales)
Family : Cranesbill family (Geraniaceae)
Genre : Cranesbills ( geranium )
Type : Brown cranesbill
Scientific name
Geranium phaeum
L.

The brown cranesbill ( Geranium phaeum ) is a plant of the genus geranium ( Geranium ) within the family of geraniaceae (Geraniaceae).

description

illustration
blossom

Vegetative characteristics

The brown cranesbill is a perennial herbaceous plant . During the flowering period, stature heights of around 30 to 70 centimeters are reached. A sloping to horizontal, gnarled, up to 1 centimeter thick rhizome is formed as a survival organ , which is covered at the front end with secondary leaf remnants. The independently upright stem is usually simple, less often at the top from about the 5th or 6th node, little branched. The upper part of the stem is covered with horizontally protruding hairs, but the lower part is bare and smooth.

The leaves are usually divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The petiole is 10 to 30 centimeters long. The basal leaves soon dry up. The leaf blade is round kidney-shaped with a width of 5 to 10 centimeters and about three-fifths divided into usually seven lobes. The upper side of the leaf is hairy, loosely pressed and the lower is hairy or only hairy on the veins . Of the alternate stem leaves, mostly only the lower three to five are leaf-like and petiolate, the upper ones are sessile, more bract-like and less divided. The stipules are ovate to lanceolate, dry-skinned, vivid red-brown.

Generative characteristics

The flowering period extends from May to June. The inflorescences face a leaf and are usually much longer than the leaves or bracts that carry them. Flower stalks and calyxes are densely covered with horizontally protruding hairs. The flower stalks are nodding at first, later spreading at an acute angle and turned down from withering to seed maturity.

The hermaphroditic flowers are 14 to 18 millimeters in diameter and are radially symmetrical and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The five sepals are elliptical 6 to 7 millimeters and about 9 millimeters long when the fruit is ripe. The five petals are dark purple-black, in exceptional cases also pink or white. When fully in bloom, the petals are spread out flat in the shape of a wheel until turned back, rounded at the upper end or with weak margins and then somewhat serrated. The stamens are longer than the sepals but shorter than the petals, with ciliate, broadened stamens at the base.

The fruit has the typical cranesbill-like shape. The fruit flaps are about 5 millimeters long, brown and wrinkled in the upper half.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 14 or 28.

Occurrence

Stock of the brown cranesbill ( Geranium phaeum )

The distribution area of Geranium phaeum includes southern, central and eastern Europe. The original homeland is Spain , Italy , France , Switzerland , Austria , the Balkan Peninsula , Bulgaria , Hungary , the Czech Republic , Slovakia , Poland , Belarus , Romania and the Ukraine . The brown cranesbill is a naturalized neophyte in Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Finland . The brown cranesbill thrives in the pre-alpine area. Geranium phaeum is naturalized as a neophyte as far as southern Sweden and Finland. It prefers to grow on shady and often damp forest edges, on the edges of bushes and in parks. He comes in Central Europe in fringe communities of Trifolion medii ago, also in Arrhenatheretalia companies or in association Alno Ulmion. It is not certain whether the brown cranesbill is indigenous to Germany.

Occurrence in Baden-Württemberg

The brown cranesbill occurs as a neophyte in Baden-Württemberg. Starting from a planted occurrence in Calw, it has spread and naturalized especially in the Enz and Nagold valleys in the wooded fringes on the banks of the two rivers. The first occurrence was the garden of the botanist Karl Friedrich von Gärtner in Calw. The first flora of Württemberg (1834) already reports an overgrown occurrence. The occurrence was later confirmed several times, most recently in 2015. The species was then spread by seeds with occasional floods of the Nagold, which flows into the Enz. And so the deposits there line up like a line: Calw (first before 1834), Bad Liebenzell -Ernstmühl (1971), Unterreichenbach near Calw (1990), Niefern-Öschelbronn near Pforzheim (1991), Dürrmenz near Mühlacker (1991) , Roßwag near Vaihingen an der Enz with two occurrences (1991 and 2011), Oberriexingen (1976, confirmed 2010). Kopecky (1975) was able to observe a similar spread along valleys in the Eagle Mountains in the Czech Republic. The growing areas in the Enz- and Nagoldtal do not form contiguous occurrences, they are just individual growing areas with less than 100 plants each. Under favorable conditions, however, they could slowly condense even further. In 2014, a new deposit was added between Unterreichenbach and Niefern.

Leaves of Geranium phaeum subsp. phaeum

Systematics

The first publication of Geranium phaeum was by Carl von Linné .

Due to fruit characteristics, Geranium phaeum and some other species are grouped together in their own subgenus ( Erodioidea ).

The following subspecies (or varieties) can be distinguished:

  • Geranium phaeum L. subsp. phaeum
  • Pale Violet cranesbill ( Geranium phaeum subsp. Lividum (L'Hér.) Hayek , Syn .: Geranium phaeum var. Lividum (L'Hér.) WDJKoch )

use

The 'Samobor' variety

A large number of varieties of Geranium phaeum are used as ornamental plants in the temperate zones in parks and gardens. They differ in their height, behavior, flower color and foliage. Here is a short selection: 'Album', 'Joan Baker', 'Lily Lovell', 'Samobor' Strangman, 'Variegatum'.

pharmacology

Experiments with an extract of the brown cranesbill showed in laboratory experiments an inhibitory effect on HIV- 1 reverse transcriptase .

literature

  • Hans Simon (Ed.): The free-range ornamental shrubs. Manual and lexicon of garden perennials . Founded by Leo Jelitto, Wilhelm Schacht. 5th completely revised edition. 2 volumes. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3265-6 , pp. 414 .
  • Gustav Hegi : Illustrated flora of Central Europe . Volume IV, part 3. Page 1690-1692. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 1924, reprint 1964 (description)
  • Siegfried Demuth: Geraniaceae . In: O. Sebald u. a .: The fern and flowering plants of Baden-Württemberg . Volume 4: Haloragaceae to Apiaceae . Pages 178–179, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1992. ISBN 3-8001-3315-6 (distribution in Baden-Württemberg).
  • K. Kopecky: Is the brown cranesbill (Geranium phaeum) original in the foothills of the Eagle Mountains? - Preslia, Volume 47, Pages 87-92, Praha 1975

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas. 8th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 625.
  2. ↑ a b c C. Aedo, (2009): Geranium. - In: C. Aedo, B. Estébanez, C. Navarro (ed.); with contributions from E. von Raab-Straube, G. Parolly: Geraniaceae. In: Euro + Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. Geranium phaeum .
  3. ^ Gustav Schübler, Georg von Martens: Flora von Würtemberg (sic!) . CF Osiander, Tübingen 1834, p. 446 ( mdz-nbn-resolving.de ): "At Calw."
  4. ↑ Walter Erhardt , Erich Götz, Nils Bödeker, Siegmund Seybold: The great zander. Encyclopedia of Plant Names. Volume 2. Types and varieties. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5406-7 . P. 1435.
  5. ↑ Mlinarič, A., Kreft, S., Umek, A., Štrukelj, B. (2000). Screening of selected plant extracts for in vitro inhibitory activity on HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (HIV-1 RT). Pharmacy, 55, 1: 75-77, PMID 10683878 .

Web links

Commons : Brown Cranesbill ( Geranium phaeum )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files