Chinese witch hazel
| Chinese witch hazel | ||||||||||||
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Chinese witch hazel ( Hamamelis mollis ) |
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| Olive. |
The plant species Chinese witch hazel ( Hamamelis mollis ) belongs to the genus Witch Hazel ( Hamamelis ). It is based in China.
description
Appearance and foliage leaf
The Chinese witch hazel grows as a deciduous shrub or small tree and reaches heights of up to 8 meters. It forms a funnel-shaped crown made of sparsely branched, sparsely protruding branches. The bark of the young twigs is tomentose with gray star hairs ( trichomes ); they only gradually become bald later. The narrow, egg-shaped winter buds are hairy gray-yellowish tomentose.
The alternate leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The short, tomentose-haired petiole is 6 to 10 mm long. The simple leaf blade is 8 to 15 cm long and 6 to 10 cm wide, obovate, rounded to elongated with a heart-shaped, somewhat asymmetrical base and a pointed tip . The leaf margin is serrated. The upper side of the leaf is sparsely covered with star hair and a bit rough. The underside of the leaf is densely covered with felty gray star hairs and feels soft - hence the specific epithet mollis for soft. On each side of the main vein there are six to eight side veins that are raised on the underside of the leaf; the two basal lateral veins have third-order leaf veins .
Inflorescence and flower
Two to five flowers are in head-like inflorescences that develop on previous year's twigs or on old wood on an upright, short inflorescence stem with a length of about 5 mm.
The flowering period extends from January to March in Central Europe, but from April to May in their homeland in China. The flowers, which can be kept for 6 to 8 weeks and are frost-hardy to −10 ° C, can hang many times during this period without noticeable damage in frosty conditions and tighten again when thawed. At times, especially in the evening, they develop a strong honey-like scent.
The hermaphrodite flowers are four-fold with a double flower envelope . The four sepals , brown on the outside and purple on the inside, are egg-shaped with a length of 3 mm and remain on the fruit after the flowering period. The four yellow petals are about 15 mm long and only 1 to 2 mm wide. In the bud they are curled up, but at the time of flowering they protrude in a star shape from the flower and are only slightly curved inwards at the front. There are four fertile stamens and four sterile, clipped stamens ( staminodes ) as nectaries . The anthers are about the same length as the 2 mm long stamens. On the tomentose, hairy, semi-subordinate, single-chambered ovary are two 1 to 1.5 mm long styles.
Fruit and seeds
The woody capsule fruit is ovate-spherical with a length of about 1.2 cm and a width of about 1 cm and thickly tomentose with yellow-brown star hairs. The sepals at the base are about a third as long as the capsule fruit. The fruits ripen between June and August. The seeds are about 8 mm in size.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 24.
Occurrence
The Chinese witch hazel is found wild in China in the provinces of Anhui , Guangxi , Hubei , Hunan , Jiangxi , Sichuan and Zhejiang . It thrives in thickets and forests at altitudes between 300 and 800 meters.
Systematics and botanical history
The Chinese witch hazel was discovered in China in 1879 by C. Maries, a plant collector for the gardening company Veitch and Sons , Chelsea. The first description of Hamamelis mollis was made in 1888 by Daniel Oliver in Hooker's Icones Plantarum , 18 (2), Table 1742. A synonym of Hamamelis mollis Olive. is Hamamelis mollis var. oblongifolia M.B.Deng & K.Yao .
use
Because of the early flowering time before the snowdrops , the Chinese witch hazel is used as an ornamental plant in parks and gardens in the temperate latitudes . The Chinese witch hazel ( Hamamelis mollis ) and the Japanese witch hazel ( Hamamelis japonica ) form the hybrid Hamamelis × intermedia , which is also used as an ornamental plant.
swell
literature
- Zhi-Yun Zhang, Hongda Zhang & Peter K. Endress: Hamamelidaceae . In Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Eds.): Flora of China . Volume 9: Pittosporaceae through Connaraceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 2003, ISBN 1-930723-14-8 , pp. 32 (English). , (online) (sections description, occurrence and systematics)
- Andreas Bärtels: Encyclopedia of Garden Trees , Ulmer, Stuttgart, 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3198-6 .
- Hans F. Kammermeyer: The beautiful witch hazel (witch hazel family) , A. Ziemsen, Wittenberg Lutherstadt, 1957.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hamamelis mollis at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ↑ First description scanned at biodiversitylibrary.org.
