Gold beard
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Golden beard ( Chrysopogon gryllus ), inflorescence |
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| Chrysopogon gryllus | ||||||||||||
| ( L. ) Trin. |
The golden beard ( Chrysopogon gryllus (L.) Trin. ) Is a species from the genus Chrysopogon and thus from the sweet grass family (Poaceae).
description
The golden beard is a perennial plant that forms dense clumps. The stalks reach heights of 30–180 centimeters. They are upright or kneeling, usually unbranched, smooth and bare. The lower leaf sheaths are densely placed; they disintegrate with increasing age and surround the base of the stalk for a long time. The ligula is a lash line. The leaf blades are 10-30 centimeters long, 2-4 millimeters wide, smooth on the underside, grooved on the upper side.
The flower panicle is 10-20 centimeters long, loose and spread out. The side branches go 6-12 from the main axis, they are very thin and mostly unbranched. The branches are thickened under the spikelets and covered with shiny, golden-yellow to red-brown, protruding hairs. The spikelets are arranged in groups of three, the middle sessile, the lateral 4–5 millimeters long stalked and usually tinged with purple. The sitting spikelet is double-flowered and 7–9 millimeters long without the awns. The glumes are covered with spiky hairs along the outer lateral nerves. The upper glume ends in a 10–15 millimeter long awn. The lemma of the lower sterile floret is about 6 millimeters long. The lemma of the upper, hermaphrodite florets ends in a 3–4 cm long awn. The awn is kneeling. The stalked spikelets are male and about 10 millimeters long without awn.
The flowering period is May to August.
The chromosome number is 2n = 20 or 40.
Occurrence
The distribution area of the golden beard extends from Central Europe to Yunnan . The golden beard loves dry, deep, well drained, humus-rich sandy or gravel soils. It grows in Ticino in a society of the Andropogonetum grylli from the Diplachnion association. In south-eastern Europe it is part of sub-Mediterranean dry grassland from the Brachypodio-Chrysopogonetea class. It is a character plant of the great Hungarian plain. In the Alps in Ticino it rises to around 1015 meters above sea level.
ecology
The buds of the renewal shoots are protected from old, dried-up leaf sheaths by a straw tunic. The golden beard has a long winter dormancy and only sprouts late in spring. The fruits need a high soil temperature for germination.
Taxonomy
Chrysopogon gryllus (L.) Trin. has the synonyms Andropogon gryllus L. , Andropogon paniculatus Lam. , Chrysopogon glabratus Trin.
use
The roots (known as Italian rice root ) are used to make bristles for brushes.
literature
- Hans Joachim Conert: Chrysopogon. In: Gustav Hegi : Illustrated flora of Central Europe. 3. Edition. Volume I, Part 3, Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1979, pp. 18-21.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Chryopogon gryllus. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved November 22, 2016.
- ↑ Julius Wiesner , J. Moeller: The raw materials of the plant kingdom. 3. Edition. Volume 2, Engelmann, 1921, p. 67 ( archive.org online ).
Web links
- Chrysopogon gryllus (L.) Trin. In: Info Flora , the national data and information center for Swiss flora . Retrieved November 22, 2016.