Chinese wisteria

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese wisteria
Chinese wisteria flower clusters (Wisteria sinensis)

Chinese wisteria flower clusters ( Wisteria sinensis )

Systematics
Eurosiden I
Order : Fabales (Fabales)
Family : Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily : Butterflies (Faboideae)
Genre : Wisteria ( Wisteria )
Type : Chinese wisteria
Scientific name
Wisteria sinensis
( Sims ) DC.

The Chinese Wisteria ( Wisteria sinensis ), also Chinese Wisteria called, is a species of the genus Wisteria ( Wisteria ) in the subfamily of the Pea family (Faboideae).

description

The Chinese wisteria is a deciduous, stately, left-winding climbing plant with trunks as thick as arms and thin branches . It can climb along other trees for 20 to 30 meters or reach a height of 10 meters in a self-supporting manner.

The long-stalked leaves are alternate , up to 30 centimeters long and 7 to 13-fold pinnate unpaired. The plant also has short-lived stipules .

The short-stalked feathers are five to eight inches long, entire and have an elongated, elliptical shape. At the base they are wedge-shaped, narrowly pointed at the front and sometimes slightly wavy. The terminal leaflets are a little larger than the lateral leaflets and are initially hairy, later they become completely glabrous.

Detail of the flowers

The very pleasantly scented flowers are around 2 cm larger than their Japanese sister species. They stand in very dense, over 20 cm long hanging clusters on short shoots and appear before the leaves shoot. The chalice is bell-shaped and has five teeth of unequal length. The crown is light blue to blue-violet, but the color differs in some varieties. The wings are sickle-shaped, the boat slightly bent up. The plants bloom from mid-April and, in a well-sunlit location, produce a second burst of flowers in the second half of June, with all the flowers of an inflorescence blooming at about the same time.

The velvety gray hairy fruits have sturdy pods and are somewhat narrowed between the seeds. They are ripe in July to August, but usually do not spin their seeds until the following spring.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 16.

ecology

The Chinese wisteria is a deciduous, left-winding climbing shrub with a woody main axis and can also be grown as a small tree. Leaf movements (with nocturnal "sleeping position") are possible through joints at the base of the petiole and leaflets. As is customary with peoples' flowers, nodules with air-nitrogen-binding bacteria are present on the roots.

The flowers are in fairly dense, pendent clusters. The flowers are fragrant "butterfly flowers with brush fittings". The nectar is abundantly secreted at the base of the stamen tube, which is open at the top. The only but regular pollinator here is the great wooden bee, Xylocopa violacea ; other visiting insects such as honey bees and earth bumblebees cannot trigger the brush mechanism, but still get the nectar through "blossoming" on the somewhat laterally bitten calyx. The flowering maturity is reached at about 10 years. Flowering time is soon after mid-April and often weaker again in June.

The pods contain only one, occasionally up to three seeds . Since in Germany the most frequent visitors to the flowers always break in, fruits are formed much less often than in the Japanese sister species. But there is allegedly an increasing tendency towards fruit set. With a spreading range of up to 10 m, the sleeves as desiccation spreaders achieve a record with us. The fruit ripening is reached from July to August, but as a winter stand the fruits only open in the spring of the following year; and mostly with a violent bang.

Vegetative reproduction occurs through runners above ground .

Toxicity

The Chinese wisteria is poisonous; Poisonous parts of plants are roots, twigs, bark, fruits and especially the seeds.

Main active ingredients: Wistarin , which is said to have a similar, but not as strong, effect as the cytisine of the golden rain. There is also a poisonous resin and allantoic acid in the leaves .

The content of ingredients may vary depending on the location and time of year.

Symptoms of poisoning: stomach discomfort, vomiting, diarrhea, dilated pupils, sometimes insomnia, circulatory disorders, collapse. Even 2 chewed seeds are said to lead to symptoms of poisoning in children.

Chinese wisteria on a wall in Cambridge (England)

Distribution and location

The Chinese Wisteria originally comes from East Asia , in particular from the People's Republic of China and there in particular from the provinces of Guangxi , Guizhou , Hebei , Henan , Hubei , Shaanxi and Yunnan . Today, however, it is also widespread in Europe and North America.

The plant prefers moist soils. It also grows in the shade, but only blooms when it is at least partially illuminated by the sun. It is often planted in different varieties for cladding walls, facades or pergolas.

Others

The Chinese wisteria can live for more than 100 years. The plant's sense of twist is genetically determined. The growing stem axis therefore performs circular movements in the direction of growth, always - viewed from above - counterclockwise.

  • Flower clusters

  • Flower clusters

  • Detail of the flower clusters

  • fruits still unripe

  • White flowering variety: Wisteria sinensis 'Alba'

literature

  • Bruno P. Kremer: Steinbach's great plant guide . Ulmer (Eugen), Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4903-6 .
  • Ruprecht Düll , Herfried Kutzelnigg : Pocket dictionary of plants in Germany and neighboring countries. The most common Central European species in portrait. 7th, corrected and enlarged edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-494-01424-1 .
  • Lutz Roth, Max Daunderer, Kurt Kormann: Poisonous plants plant poisons. 6th edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86820-009-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 600.

Web links

Commons : Chinese Wisteria  album with pictures, videos and audio files