German gorse

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German gorse
German gorse (Genista germanica), illustration from Thomé's "Flora of Germany, Austria and Switzerland"

German gorse ( Genista germanica ), illustration from Thomé's "Flora of Germany, Austria and Switzerland"

Systematics
Eurosiden I
Order : Fabales (Fabales)
Family : Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily : Butterflies (Faboideae)
Genre : Gorse ( genista )
Type : German gorse
Scientific name
Genista germanica
L.

The German gorse ( Genista germanica ) is a type of plant from the legume family (Fabaceae).

features

inflorescence
fruit
Opened fruits with seeds

The German gorse is a perennial (semi) shrub with a stature height of 20 to 60 cm. The stems are erect to ascending. Young twigs are green, densely hairy and thornless. Older branches are brown, bare and have green thorns up to 2.5 cm long, which are branched in the lower part of the stem. The shoots contain tannins and, similar to the dyer's gorse , a yellow dye. The leaves are almost sessile, undivided, 10 to 20 mm long, 4 to 8 mm wide, narrow, ovoid to lanceolate. They are grass green, hairy on the underside, and glabrous on top. The leaf margin is entire and covered with protruding hairs.

Flowering time is May to August. The flowers are golden yellow, 8 to 12 mm in diameter. They are arranged in terminal, three to five cm long bunches. The flower stalks are hairy protruding. The bracts are narrow and half as long as the flower stalks. The pods are black-brown, 8 to 15 mm long, 3 to 5 mm wide, densely hairy and contain 2 to 5 brown, lenticular seeds.

The whole plant is poisonous from quinolizidine alkaloids , especially the seeds, which like the flowers with a total alkaloid content of up to 0.25% v. a. Contain cytisine . The herb mainly contains sparteine .

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 42 or 44.

distribution

Genista germanica

The area extends in the south to southwest France, central Italy and Bulgaria, in the north to southern Sweden, in the east to western Russia. The German gorse is missing in the actual Mediterranean area. It is considered to be regionally endangered in Austria (in the western Alpine region, in the northern Alpine foothills and in the Pannonian region , in Vorarlberg it is absent). In Germany it is threatened with extinction in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, in several other federal states endangered or endangered.

Location

The species is an acid pointer and avoids limestone areas. It often grows on dry sandy soils, especially in heaths, light (oak) forests and on rough meadows. It occurs in the colline and montane elevations , south of the Alps it rises to 2300 m asl, north of it only up to 800 m. In terms of plant sociology , it is an association character of the Genisto germanicae-Callunetum from the Genistion pilosae association in Central Europe.

Common names

The other German-language common names exist or existed for the German gorse : Erdpfriemen, Ginst, Ginster, Heideblüh / Hoadenblüh ( Salzburg ), Stechend Pfriemen, Stachelpfriemen, Stäckheide ( Delmenhorst ), Stechheide (Delmenhorst) and Wrietkrut ( Mecklenburg ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 583.
  2. ^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, p. 126. ( online ).

Web links

Commons : German Gorse ( Genista germanica )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files