Scale heaths
Scale heaths | ||||||||||||
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Blooming square heather ( Cassiope tetragona ) on Svalbard |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name of the subfamily | ||||||||||||
Cassiopoideae | ||||||||||||
Kron & Judd | ||||||||||||
Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
Cassiope | ||||||||||||
D. Don |
The Schuppenheiden ( Cassiope ) are the only plant genus of the subfamily Cassiopoideae within the family of the heather plants (Ericaceae).
description
The Cassiope species grow as "erikoide", evergreen shrubs or dwarf shrubs . The branched branches are prostrate or ascending. The closely spaced leaves are opposite to each other on the branches and are usually arranged in four distinct rows; this makes the branches look square. The sessile leaves are scaly, leathery and often pointed. The flat or outwardly curled leaf blades have a smooth or fringed to ciliate leaf margin and no discernible leaf veins.
The small hairs (trichomes) are bundled-branched only in this genus within the Ericaceae. It is the only genus within the Ericaceae that has a bisporic embryo sac of the Polygonum type.
The flowers stand individually in the leaf axils on more or less long flower stalks; sometimes a two-flowered inflorescence also arises at the end of the branch. There are four to six bracts available. The hanging flowers are hermaphroditic, radial symmetry and (rarely four) mostly five-fold. The five free sepals are scale-shaped; they also surround the fruit. The five white to pink petals are fused together like a bell, with five bent back corolla lobes. At the base of the flower there are nectar glands . The ten stamens do not protrude beyond the petals. The upright stamens are flattened. The egg-shaped anthers have two long horns bent back (appendages). The five carpels have become a top permanent ovary grown with many ovules .
The five compartments of the capsule fruit each have two columns at their tips. It opens with five teeth at maturity and releases a multitude of seeds. The tiny seeds have no wings.
Occurrence
The genus Cassiope , which occurs only in the northern hemisphere, has a mainly circumboreal distribution. Their total distribution area extends south to China , the Himalayas , Japan , Russia and western North America . There are eleven species in China; six of them are endemic there .
Systematics
The genus Cassiope was founded in 1834 by David Don in the Edinburgh New Philos. Journal, 17, page 157. Type species is Cassiope tetragona (L.) D.Don . Cassiope is the only genus of the only tribe Cassiopeae HTCox ex Stevens of the subfamily Cassiopoideae Kron & Judd within the family of the heather plants (Ericaceae).
species
There are around 12 to 17 species of Cassiope :
- Cassiope abbreviata Hand.-Mazz. : It occurs in Sichuan at altitudes between 3800 and 4000 meters.
- Cassiope argyrotricha T.Z.Hsu : It occurs in northwestern Yunnan at altitudes between 3000 and 4400 meters.
- Cassiope fastigiata (Wall.) D.Don : It occurs in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Yunnan and Xizang.
- Cassiope fujianensis L.K. Ling & GSHoo : It occurs in Fujian .
- Bärlappähnliche Schuppenheide ( Cassiope lycopodioides (Pall.) D.Don ): It occurs in Japan, in Far Eastern Asiatic Russia, in Alaska and in British Columbia.
- Cassiope membranifolia C. Fang : It occurs in northwestern Yunnan.
- Mertens-Schuppenheide ( Cassiope mertensiana (Bong.) G.Don ): It occurs in Alaska, in western Canada and in the western United States.
- Cassiope myosuroides W.W.Sm. : It occurs in Myanmar and northwestern Yunnan at altitudes between 4000 and 4500 meters.
- Cassiope nana T.Z.Hsu : It occurs in northwestern Yunnan at altitudes between 2000 and 3800 meters.
- Cassiope palpebrata W.W.Sm. : It occurs in Myanmar and northwestern Yunnan at altitudes between 3000 and 4300 meters.
- Cassiope pectinata Stapf : It occurs in Myanmar, in southwest Sichuan, in eastern Xizang and in northwestern Yunnan at altitudes between 3600 and 4100 meters.
- Cassiope selaginoides Hook. f. & Thomson : It occurs in Bhutan, Nepal, Xizang, Sichuan and Yunnan.
- Square heather ( Cassiope tetragona (L.) D.Don ): It occurs in Alaska, Canada, Montana, Washington, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen and Russia.
- Cassiope wardii C. Marquand : It occurs in southeastern Xizang at altitudes between 3900 and 4200 meters.
No longer belong to the genus:
- Moosheide ( Cassiope hypnoides ) L. ⇒ Harrimanella hypnoides (L.) Coville
- Cassiope stelleriana (Pallas) DC. ⇒ Harrimanella stelleriana (Pallas) Coville
use
Some species are rarely used as ornamental plants.
swell
- Fang Ruizheng & Peter F. Stevens: Cassiope in the Flora of China, Volume 14, p. 456: Online.
- Cassiopoideae in the Ericaceae homepage of Kathleen A. Kron.
- Kathleen A. Kron, Walter S. Judd, PF Stevens, DM Crayn, AA Anderberg, PA Gadek, CJ Quinn, & JL Luteyn: A phylogenetic classification of the Ericaceae: Molecular and morphological evidence. , Bot. Rev., 68, 2002, pp. 335-423.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fang Ruizheng & Peter F. Stevens: Cassiope in the Flora of China, Volume 14, p. 456: Online.
- ↑ a b c d e f Cassiope in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Fang Ruizheng (方 瑞 征 Fang Rhui-cheng); Peter F. Stevens: Cassiope D.Don , pp. 36-38 - online with the same text as the printed work , In: Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (ed.): Flora of China. Volume 14: Ericaceae. Science Press and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing and St. Louis 2010
- ↑ Kathleen A. Kron, Walter S. Judd, PF Stevens, DM Crayn, AA Anderberg, PA Gadek, CJ Quinn, & JL Luteyn: A phylogenetic classification of the Ericaceae: Molecular and morphological evidence. , Bot. Rev., 68, 2002, pp. 335-423.
Web links
- Description in The Virtual Floran (Swedish)