Cheirolophus crassifolius

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Cheirolophus crassifolius
Cheirolophus crassifolius, Dingli Cliffs (Malta)

Cheirolophus crassifolius , Dingli Cliffs ( Malta )

Systematics
Order : Astern-like (Asterales)
Family : Daisy family (Asteraceae)
Subfamily : Carduoideae
Tribe : Cynareae
Genre : Cheirolophus
Type : Cheirolophus crassifolius
Scientific name
Cheirolophus crassifolius
( Bertol. ) Susanna
Habitus in the habitat

Cheirolophus crassifolius is a species of the genus Cheirolophus from the sunflower family (Asteraceae). The shrub can only be found in Malta and has been the official national plant of the island state since 1971. Regardless, the species is considered critically endangered. The synonym Palaeocyanus crassifolius (Bertol.) Dostál has been used for a long time and is often still to be found.

description

Cheirolophus crassifolius is an evergreen shrub with little branching upwards that reaches a height of 20 to 80 centimeters. The shiny green, short-stalked leaves are almost all in a basal rosette. They are 5 to 7 centimeters long, 1.5 centimeters wide, undivided, inverted lanceolate to spatulate and clearly fleshy. The leaf margins are smooth or serrated. The stem leaves are linear-spatulate and smaller.

The baskets are long-stalked, 2 to 2.5 centimeters in diameter and are egg-shaped. The bracts are entire, without appendages and leathery. The middle bracts are ovate, blunt and striped. The tubular flowers are purple or white in color, the outer ones are sterile. The fruits are 6 to 8 mm long, hairless achenes with a slightly longer, white pappus .

The flowering period lasts from March to September.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 30.

Spread and endangerment

The species is native to Malta, Gozo and Fungus Rock, where it inhabits cliffs and rocky valley slopes on coral limestone in full sun. It is also often used as an ornamental plant for parks or median strips (e.g. between Mellieħa and Il-Għadira ).

Cheirolophus crassifolius is very rare and threatened with extinction. The populations still comprise (estimated) several thousand plants in total, important factors of the endangerment are the aging of the populations, presumably because the fruits of the plants are attacked by an unknown moth larva, the disturbance by humans in easily accessible locations and invasive neophytes such as carpobrotus edulis , Agave americana and Opuntia ficus-indica .

Systematics and botanical history

The species was first described by Stefano Zerafa as Centaurea spathulata in 1827 . But this name is a younger homonym ; Michele Tenore had already described another species under this name in 1811. Antonio Bertoloni therefore replaced it in 1829 with Centaurea crassifolia . The species name refers to the fleshy leaves. In 1971 it was proclaimed a Maltese national plant. In 1973 Josef Dostál placed it in its own genus as Palaeocyanus crassifolius . The genus and species names were only validly published in 1976. Based on molecular genetic results, Alfonso Susanna then placed the species in the genus Cheirolophus in 1999 .

proof

  1. ↑ a b Josef Dostál: New nomenclatural combinations and taxa of the Compositae subtribe Centaureinae in Europe. Vernon H. Heywood (ed.): . Notulae systematicae ad Floram Europaeam spectantes, No 18 - Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 71 (3), 1975 (publ 1976th): 191-210. doi : 10.1111 / j.1095-8339.1975.tb02535.x
  2. ^ A b c S. M. Haslam, PD Sell, PA Wolseley: A Flora of the Maltese Islands , Msida (Malta), 1977, p. 344
  3. ↑ a b c Josef Dostál: Palaeocyanus Dostál. In: TG Tutin, VH Heywood, NA Burges, DM Moore, DH Valentine, SM Walters, DA Webb (eds.): Flora Europaea . Volume 4: Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae) . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1976, ISBN 0-521-08717-1 , pp. 249 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ a b c Bertrand de Montmollin, Wendy Strahm (Ed.): The Top 50 Mediterranean Island Plants: Wild plants at the brink of extinction, and what is needed to save them. , IUCN / SSC Mediterranean Islands Plant Specialist Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK, 2005, PDF online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 70@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / data.iucn.org  
  5. ^ Hans Christian Weber, Bernd Kendzior: Flora of the Maltese Islands - A Field Guide , 2006, ISBN 3-8236-1478-9 , p. 102
  6. ↑ Stefano Zerafa: Floræ Melitensis thesaurus, sive Plantarum enumeratio, quæ in Melitæ Gaulosque insulis aut indigenæ aut vulgatissimæ occurrunt. 1827, preview in Google Book search
  7. ↑ Antonio Bertoloni: [Review by:] Florae Melitensis thesaurus sive plantarum enumeratio [....]. - Annali di storia naturale 2, 1829: 358–364, preview in the Google book search
  8. ↑ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-937872-16-7 , p. 182 (reprint from 1996).
  9. ^ Josef Dostál: Preliminary notes on the subtribe Centaureinae. - Acta Botanica Academiae Scientiarum Hungariae 19, 1973 (1-4): 73-79.
  10. ^ Entry on the species in The International Plant Names Index , 2008, online , last accessed on April 2, 2010
  11. ↑ Alfonso Susanna, Teresa Garnatje & Núria García Jacas: Molecular phylogeny of Cheirolophus (Asteraceae: Cardueae- Centaureinae) based on ITS sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA. - Plant Systematics and Evolution 214 (1-4), 1999: 147-160. doi : 10.1007 / BF00985736

Web links

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