Chamaelirium luteum

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Chamaelirium luteum
Chamaelirium luteum, inflorescences

Chamaelirium luteum , inflorescences

Systematics
Monocots
Order : Lily-like (Liliales)
Family : Germer family (Melanthiaceae)
Tribe : Chionographideae
Genre : Chamaelirium
Type : Chamaelirium luteum
Scientific name of the  genus
Chamaelirium
Willd.
Scientific name of the  species
Chamaelirium luteum
( L. ) A. Gray

Chamaelirium luteum , even false unicorn called, is the only kind of plant genus Chamaelirium from the family of melanthiaceae (Melanthiaceae). It iswidespreadin eastern North America and is called “Blazing-Star”, “Devil's-bit”, “Fairy-wand”, “Drooping-Starwort”, “Squirrel-Tails”, “False Unicorn” or “Rattlesnake-root” . Chamaelirium luteum is used as an ornamental and medicinal plant.

Description and synecology

Illustration of Chamaelirium luteum

Chamaelirium luteum is dioecious, separate sexes ( dioecious ) or sometimes polygamomonocial with a clear sexual dimorphism, also in the vegetative features. Since female specimens die earlier, the proportion of males in a population is higher.

Appearance and leaf

Chamaelirium luteum grows as an evergreen, perennial herbaceous plant . This hemicryptophyte or geophyte forms an underground, short, squat, nodular rhizome as a permanent organ . The fibrous, fleshy roots can hold the rhizome underground at the most favorable height by contraction . The above-ground parts of the plant are bare. Male specimens reach heights of growth of 30 to 70 cm and female specimens of growth heights of up to 120 cm.

In the male specimens 5 to 20 15 to 35 cm long and in the female specimens 15 to 50 30 to 60 cm, at fruit ripeness 150 cm long leaves are densely packed in a basal rosette. The durable leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The leaf blade narrows towards the broad petiole, which is 4 to 6 cm long. With a length of 5 to 20 cm and a width of 1.5 to 6 cm, the simple leaf blade is spatulate to inverted-lanceolate with a smooth to tiny wavy edge. There is a parallel nerve.

Inflorescence, flowering and pollination

In North America, the flowering period is late spring to summer. The inflorescence stems and inflorescences in male specimens wither shortly after anthesis . In the female specimens, the inflorescence stems are glabrous, durable, simple, upright to nodding and hollow; they can be kept for up to years. There are few sessile leaves on the inflorescence stem, with a length of 3 to 8 cm and a width of 1 to 1.5 cm linear to lanceolate leaves. The terminal inflorescences do not contain bracts . The male inflorescences are mostly racemose or rarely spiked with nodding upper ends and are 7 to 15 cm long and 10 to 15 mm in diameter. The female inflorescences are racemose or spike-like , 1.5 to 4 cm long at the beginning of the anthesis and stretch up to 35 cm in length mainly within one or two weeks until the fruit is ripe. The pedicels of the male flowers are 2 to 5 mm long and spread out. The flower stalks of the female flowers are erect to ascending. In a few specimens there are some hermaphrodite flowers (polygamomonözisch) below the male flowers.

The mostly unisexual, rarely hermaphrodite flowers are radial symmetry and threefold. The six identical, free bracts are durable, narrow, linear-spatulate and single-nerved. The bracts are initially white to greenish-white and later turn yellow (especially when drying; the epithet luteum is derived from the yellow bracts of the herbal material ). The bracts are spread out in the male flowers and 3 to 4 mm long and in the female flowers ascending and 2 to 3 mm long. There are no nectaries at the base of the bracts . The male and hermaphrodite flowers have two unequal circles with three stamens each. There are no pistils on the male flowers. Of the free, flattened stamens , the outer three are longer. The basifix, white anthers have two counters and are elongated-inverted-lanceolate with a length of about 0.5 mm and point outwards. The pollen grains are tetraporate. Staminodes are present in the female flowers . Three Upper permanent fruit leaves are not fully-ovate runs into an elliptical to deep-trilobal dreikammerigen ovary grown. There are no septal glands. The three free, durable, with a length of 1.5 to 2 mm linear-club-shaped, bent back stylus have scar tissue along the entire top.

The pollination is effected by insects ( Entomophilie ). There are only very few observations and so no more precise information about pollination can be made.

Fruit, seeds and spread

The upright, loculicidal capsule fruit is triple and ovoid-oblong with a length of 7 to 14 mm and a diameter of 5 to 6 mm. Each fruit compartment can hold two to four seeds. With a length of 1.8 to 2 mm, the elliptical to linear-elongated reddish-brown seeds have a wide, wing-like aril with a total of 5 to 6 mm long.

The seeds spread within a radius of up to 10 meters when the fruit heads are moved by the wind or by animals passing by and the seeds are thrown out of the capsule fruits.

Chromosome number

The basic chromosome number is x = 12.

Occurrence and endangerment

Chamaelirium luteum is common in eastern North America . Locations are for the Canadian state of Ontario and the US states of Massachusetts , Michigan , New Jersey , New York , Ohio , Pennsylvania , Illinois , Arkansas , northern Florida , Georgia , Kentucky , Maryland , Mississippi , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee and Virginia in front.

Chamaelirium luteum is a generalist in terms of habitat preference . It thrives in damp meadows, thickets and on richly wooded slopes at altitudes between 0 and 1100 meters.

Chamaelirium luteum is common near its center of distribution, but rare at the western and northern limits of the range. Its northern limit of distribution lies in the two New England states of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Previously, Chamaelirium luteum common in these two states, but today there are only eleven populations some of which contain only very few copies.

Since Chamaelirium luteum is collected as an ornamental and medicinal plant from its wild stocks, it is particularly endangered in the New England states. It is also endangered there by loss of habitat , shading, invasive plants , all-wheel drive vehicles and game browsing . A plan to protect this species has been drawn up for the New England states.

While in the Flora of North America 2002 Chamaelirium luteum in Ontario is still considered rare, the stocks according to Allard 2003 have probably died out and thus the species would have become extinct in Canada .

Systematics

The species was first published in 1753 under the name ( Basionym ) Veratrum luteum by Carl von Linné in Species Plantarum , 2, pp. 1044-1045. The genus Chamaelirium was set up in 1808 by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in the magazine for the latest discoveries in the entire natural history - Society of Friends of Natural Sciences in Berlin , Volume 2, p. 18 with the type species Chamaelirium carolinianum . The species name Chamaelirium carolinianum Willd. but is published invalid. The new combination to Chamaelirium luteum was made in 1848 by Asa Gray in A Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States , p. 503. A homonym is Chamaelirium luteum Miq. published in Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel : Annales Museum Botanicum Lugduno-Batavi , 1, 1863, p. 144. The generic name Chamaelirium is derived from the Greek words chamae for on the ground and lirion for white lily. The specific epithet luteum means yellow and refers to the color of the bracts.

Other synonyms for Chamaelirium luteum (L.) A.Gray are: Melanthium luteum (L.) Thunb. , Helonias lutea (L.) Ker Gawl. , Ophiostachys virginica Redouté nom. superfl., Dasurus luteus (L.) Salisb. nom. inval., Chionographis lutea (L.) Baill. , Siraitos luteus (L.) FTWang & Tang , Melanthium dioicum Walter , Helonias pumila Jacq. , Helonias dioica (Walter) Pursh , Diclinotrys albiflorum Raf. , Veratrum flavum Herb. ex Schult. & School f. , Abalon albiflorum Raf. , Abalon albiflorum var. Obovatum Raf. , Abalon albiflorum var. Pumilum Raf. , Abalon albiflorum var. Serpentarium Raf. , Abalon albiflorum var. Spicatum Raf. , Abalon albiflorum var. Sylvaticum Raf. , Chamaelirium obovale Small . Synonyms for Chamaelirium Willd. are: Abalon Adans. nom. inval., Ophiostachys Redouté , Diclinotrys Raf. , Siraitos Raf. , Dasurus Salisb.

Chamaelirium luteum is - according to some authors - the only species of the genus Chamaelirium in the tribe Chionographideae within the Melanthiaceae family . The tribe Chionographideae Nakai previously had the rank of a family Chionographidaceae (Nakai) Takht. or was incorporated into the Liliaceae family.

According to R. Govaerts, the following species belong to the genus Chamaelirium :

use

Chamaelirium luteum is used as an ornamental and medicinal plant. In order to reduce the removal from wild stocks, it is cultivated as a medicinal plant. She is often called Helonias in medical and pharmaceutical literature. The indigenous peoples of North America used Chamaelirium luteum in many ways as a medicinal plant. Medical uses include treatment of colic , stomach ailments, indigestion, worm shedding, appetite stimulation, and a variety of diseases associated with the male and female reproductive organs. Chamaelirium luteum contains estrogenic compounds. The drug False Unicorn Root, Helonias Root, Devil's Bite, Rhizoma Helonias or Helonias dioicae rhizoma is obtained from the underground parts of the plant. The drug contains steroid saponins , especially chamaelirin. It is also used in homeopathy , for example in kidney infections; Fresh subterranean plant parts serve as the starting material.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Franz von Bruchhausen, Hermann Hager (editor): Hager's Handbook of Pharmaceutical Practice , Edition 5, Springer Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3-540-52688-9 Chamaelirium luteum pp. 341–342 google-books-online.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Dorothy J. Allard: Chamaelirium luteum (L.) A. Gray - Devil's Bit , In: Conservation and Research Plan for New England , Framingham, Massachusetts, USA for New England Wild Flower Society , 2003: Full text PDF.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Frederick H. Utech: Genus Chamaelirium and Species Chamaelirium luteum , pp. 68–69 - online with the same text as the printed work , Flora of North America Editorial Committee ( Ed.): Flora of North America North of Mexico , Volume 26 - Magnoliophyta: Liliidae: Liliales and Orchidales , Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 2002. ISBN 0-19-515208-5
  4. ↑ a b c d Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Chamaelirium luteum. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved April 2, 2013.
  5. ↑ a b Chamaelirium luteum in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
  6. ↑ First publication scanned at biodiversitylibrary.org .
  7. ↑ Chamaelirium luteum at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed April 2, 2013.
  8. ↑ Chamaelirium luteum at Plants for A Future . last accessed on April 2, 2013
  9. ^ Gerhard Madaus : Helonias dioica - false unicorn root - Liliaceae , In: Textbook of Biological Remedies , 1938 in Henriettes Herbal .

Web links

Commons : Chamaelirium luteum  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Jackie Greenfield & Jeanine M. Davis: False Unicorn, Fairywand Chamaelirium (Chamaelirium luteum (L.) A. Gray) , In: Medicinal Herb Production Guide for North Varolina Consortioum on Natural Medicines and Public Health , 2004: Full text PDF ( Memento dated December 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )