Wing nut (botany)

As samara or wingnut , winged, single or multi-seeded and nut-like ( achenes or nutlets), dry, non-popping, closing fruits , flying fruits are called. Some fruits of the peoples are also samaras although they are in the legume family , e.g. B. the fruits in the genus Myroxylon .

The wing is a flat, more or less skinned edge of the fruit, which is formed from the pericarp and serves as a flight organ for the spread of wind . They occur, for example, with birch , ash and elm . There can be one, but also several (samaroid) wings, as in the case of the birch trees, or z. B. in the genus Combretum in the winged family or in the rhubarb ( Rheum rhabarbarum ). A distinction is also made between the double wingnut, as is typical with the maples ( Acer spp.), Or even multiple ones , which each form fissure fruits .

The expression Samara was already used by Pliny for the fruits of the elm. Joseph Gärtner introduced the term to modern botany in 1788 in his work De fructibus et seminibus plantarum .

There are also wings fruit ( pseudo Samara , Diclesium) in which the wing is not the pericarp, but by the perianth or the base of the flower are formed and with the fruit to create a airworthy diaspore connect z. B. Valves . The front and cover leaves can also surround the fruit like wings or envelop it like a bag.

Also possible are "wing caps", capsule fruits , here the seeds are released when they split up, as with Dodeana , in contrast to the split fruits of the double or multiple wing nuts.

Elm, ash wing nuts and the typical double wing nut of maples
Wing nuts and leaves of the mountain elm
Double-winged wing nut of the birch
Four-winged wing nuts from Combretum zeyheri
Three-winged "wing capsule" from Dodonaea coriacea
Wing fruit (Pseudosamara) of Dipterocarpus bourdilloni with the sepals that have grown into wings
Pseudosamara of Tilia cordata with the bract that serves as a wing
"Wing capsule" from Carpotroche platyptera with many wings

But winged seeds (winged seeds) can also be formed, as in the Alsomitra macrocarpa or in the Rosa Pandorea ( Pandorea jasminoides ), but here the wings are formed by the seed coat (testa) and not by the pericarp.

There are also wing nuts ( Pterocarya ), a genus of plants in the walnut family (Juglandaceae), the fruits of which are wing nuts.

literature

S. Manchester, EL O'Leary: Phylogenetic Distribution and Identification of Fin-winged Fruits. In: The Botanical Review. 76 (1), 2010, pp. 1–82, doi: 10.1007 / s12229-010-9041-0 , online (PDF; 3.3 MB), on researchgate.net, accessed on August 6, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Samara (fruit) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Herder's Conversations Lexicon . Freiburg im Breisgau 1854, Volume 2, p. 730 .: wing fruit at Zeno.org .
↑ ^a ^b Schütt, Schuck, Stimm: Lexicon of tree and shrub species . Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-53-8 , pp. 464 .
^ L. van der Pijl : Principles of Dispersal in Higher Plants. Springer, 1969, ISBN 978-3-662-00801-0 , p. 57.
^ Manfred A. Fischer , Karl Oswald, Wolfgang Adler: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol. 3rd, improved edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9 .
^ Gerhard Wagenitz : Dictionary of Botany. Morphology, anatomy, taxonomy, evolution. 2nd, expanded edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-937872-94-0 , p. 257.

[1] Herder's Conversations Lexicon . Freiburg im Breisgau 1854, Volume 2, p. 730 .: wing fruit at Zeno.org .

[LBS-2] Schütt, Schuck, Stimm: Lexicon of tree and shrub species . Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-53-8 , pp. 464 .

[3] L. van der Pijl : Principles of Dispersal in Higher Plants. Springer, 1969, ISBN 978-3-662-00801-0 , p. 57.

[EF-4] Manfred A. Fischer , Karl Oswald, Wolfgang Adler: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol. 3rd, improved edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9 .

[Wag-5] Gerhard Wagenitz : Dictionary of Botany. Morphology, anatomy, taxonomy, evolution. 2nd, expanded edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-937872-94-0 , p. 257.