Gomphocarpus physocarpus
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Gomphocarpus physocarpus |
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| E. Mey. |
Gomphocarpus physocarpus , in German also, together with Gomphocarpus fruticosus , swan silk plant or balloon plant , is a species of the genus Gomphocarpus from the subfamily of the silk plants (Asclepiadoideae), which was originally native to southern Africa and which has now overgrown parts of the world .
description
Appearance and leaf
Gomphocarpus physocarpus grows as a shrub or shrub that reaches a height of 1 to 2.5 meters. All parts of the plant contain a white, poisonous milky sap . It forms a taproot with fibrous roots. The few lignified trunks below are branched. The bark of the young, hollow twigs is light yellowish-green and protruding, white, with downy hairs ( trichomes ).
The opposite leaves have a 3 to 12 mm long petiole. The entire leaf blade is 5 to 10 (to 12) cm long and 0.5 to 1.5 (to 2) cm) wide, narrowly elongated to narrowly lanceolate with a wedge-shaped blade base and a pointed or pointed end. The underside of the leaf is sparsely hairy and the almost bald upper side has hairs mainly along the midrib.
Inflorescence and flower
The nodding, umbel-like inflorescence standing outside the leaf axils contains five to twelve flowers. The 1.5 to 3.5 cm long inflorescence stem is densely hairy, the downy hairs stand out. The bracts are obsolete. The densely downy, hairy flower stalks measure (1 to) 1.5 to 2 (to 3) cm in length.
The hermaphrodite flowers are five-fold and radial symmetry . The five fluffy hairy sepals are 3 to 4 mm long and 1 mm wide, narrowly triangular or lanceolate and tapering to a point. The five strongly bent back petals are white and bare on the outside. They are covered on the inside with small papillae , on the right inner edge with long white hairs. The corolla has a diameter of 1.4 to 2 cm. The tips of the petals, which are densely hairy at the edges, are 5 to 8 mm long and 3 to 4.5 mm wide, ovate and pointed. The gynostegium stands on a 1.5 to 2 mm high stem. The white corolla lobes, often tinged with pink or purple, are hood-shaped and as high as the gynostegium. The upper edge is drawn out proximally into two short, outwardly curved or straight, about 0.5 mm long "teeth" with a large nectar gland . The inner cavity is without a "tooth". When viewed from the side, they are approximately square to rectangular, 2 to 3 mm high and 1.5 to 2 (up to 2.5) mm wide. The scar is flat. The wings of the dust bag are 1,8 to 2 mm long, the edges are slightly curved sinusoidally. The black colored corspuculum is egg-shaped to approximately cylindrical and measures 0.4 mm in height and 0.15 mm in width (thickness). The side brims are translucent. The caudiculae , approximately 0.3 mm long, are flattened and kinked. The flattened pollinia measure 1.6 in height and 0.4 mm in width and have an obscure-lanceolate shape.
The flowers are very rich in nectar . Often a drop of nectar hangs on the flower. In suitable habitats , Gomphocarpus physocarpus can bloom all year round.
Fruits and seeds
The follicles are 6 to 8 cm long with a diameter of 2.5 to 5 cm, obliquely egg-shaped, rounded or almost rounded and somewhat flattened on one side and a sloping base. But they do not have a beak-like appendage at the apical end that is rounded. They are initially woolly hairy with thread-like trichomes (also called "soft bristles" or "soft spines") that can be up to 1 cm long. When ripe, they bald. The seeds are about 4.5 mm long and about 2 mm wide, egg-shaped with a convex and a concave side. The seed coat is warty. The shiny white head of hair is about 3 cm long.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22.
Similar Kinds of Differences
Gomphocarpus physocarpus is very similar to the cotton milkweed ( Gomphocarpus fruticosus ), which is why both are often only referred to together as "balloon plant" in floristic practice. They can be distinguished mainly by the egg-shaped follicle fruits, which in Gomphocarpus fruticosus are extended to an apical, beak- shaped appendage, which earned them the common name "swan plant", while the fruits of Gomphocarpus physocarpus have a rounded tip without an appendage. Furthermore, the corolla lobes of the cotton milkweed are elongated with well-developed "teeth" on the upper edge, while the "teeth" of Gomphocarpus physocarpus are only weakly developed and the upper edge sloping downwards. In the overall habitus , the cotton milkweed is already more branched at the base, while Gomphoceras physocarpus has a main trunk that only branches further up.
Also often referred to as the “balloon plant”, but not related to the species presented here, is the balloon vine ( Cardiospermum halicacabum ) now also grown in southern Germany .
Synecology
Gomphocarpus physocarpus is an important food plant for the caterpillars of the Lesser Monarch butterfly ( Danaus chrysippus orientis ) in its original range . The caterpillars are immune to the plant's alkaloids , which they accumulate in their bodies. They outlast the pupal phase and make the moths poisonous and foul-tasting for potential predators.
Gomphocarpus physocarpus is an important food plant for the caterpillars of the monarch butterfly ( Danaus plexippus ) in some regions in which both this plant species and this butterfly species have been introduced or immigrated . For Euploea core provides Gomphocarpus physocarpus is a possible food crop. However, yet most caterpillars die before reaching the second instar.
According to observations by Gareth Coombs, Craig I. Peter and Steven D. Johnson published in 2009, the flowers of Gomphocarpus physocarpus in the original range in South Africa are mainly pollinated by wasp species. These are species of the genus Polistes and Belonogaster .
The great success in colonizing areas other than the original range has been made possible by the development of the generalist wasp pollination system. The presence of similar or related wasp species in these areas has contributed significantly to the spread of this species. In a slightly older work Paul Forster observed in Australia, where Gomphocarpus physocarpus is introduced, types of families wasps (Vespidae), wasps (Pompilidae) and parasitic wasps (Ichneumonidae) in transferring the pollinia. Specimens of the monarch butterfly ( Danaus plexippus ), the western honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) and various species of ants (Fam. Formicidae) have also been observed to have pollinia attached to them. An introduction of these pollinia packets into the flowers, however, could not be observed in these species.
Occurrence
The range of Gomphocarpus physocarpus was originally limited to South Africa , Swaziland and southern Mozambique . Gomphocarpus physocarpus occurs today in Africa in suitable habitats in Kenya , Tanzania and Uganda . Today it is overgrown almost all over the world in suitable habitats. Already in 1868 Gomphocarpus physocarpus was published as feral in Australia.
It grows on temporarily moist pastureland and seasonal floodplains, but also in habitats influenced by humans. It occurs at altitudes from 0 to about 1000 meters, locally also higher, up to 1800 meters near Johannesburg or in East Africa .
Systematics
The first description of Gomphocarpus physocarpus was made in 1838 by the German botanist Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer . The specific epithet physocarpa is derived from the Greek words physa for bubbles and karpos for fruit and refers to bloated, bubble-like fruit. In 1885 Eugène Pierre Nicolas Fournier described the species Gomphocarpus brasiliensis from Brazil. During the follow-up examination it turned out that this taxon is identical to Gomphoceras physocarpus . This proves that this species was introduced to Brazil well before 1885. Other synonyms for Gomphocarpus physocarpus E. Mey. are Asclepias brasiliensis (E. Fourn.) Schltr. and Asclepias physocarpa (E. Mey.) Schltr.
In the vernacular, Gomphocarpus physocarpus is also known as the Papsthoden- or Papsteier-plant .
Toxicity and Folk Medicine
All parts of the plant are poisonous. When fed in large quantities, it has already caused the death of many sheep.
Gomphocarpus physocarpus was also used in traditional medicine in South Africa. The roots were used for stomach pain. The dried leaves were rubbed into a powder and snorted for headaches. The milky sap was used on warts.
swell
literature
- DJ Goyder, A. Nicholas: A Revision of Gomphocarpus R. Br. (Apocynaceae: Asclepiadeae). In: Kew Bulletin. Vol 56, No. 4, 2001, pp. 769-836, JSTOR 4119297 .
- Bingtao Li, Michael G. Gilbert, W. Douglas Stevens: Asclepiadaceae . In Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven (Ed.): Flora of China . tape 17 : Verbenaceae through Solanaceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 1994, ISBN 0-915279-24-X , pp. 204 (English). , PDF file , Gomphocarpus physocarpus online.
Web sources
- Alice Notten, 2010: Gomphocarpus physocarpus at plantzafrica.com . (Section Description, Toxicity and Folk Medicine)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b www.saemereien.ch. Attention: Common name for both Gomphocarpus physocarpus and Gomphocarpus fruticosus ! ( Memento of the original from December 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer: Commentariorum de plantis Africae Australioris: quas per octo annos collegit observationibusque manuscriptis. Leopold Voss, Leipzig 1838, p. 202, digitized .
- ↑ Gareth Coombs, Craig I. Peter, Steven D. Johnson: Allee effects in the self-incompatible wasp-pollinated milkweed Gomphocarpus physocarpus. In: Austral Ecology. Volume 34, No. 6, 2009, pp. 688-697, doi : 10.1111 / j.1442-9993.2009.01976.x .
- ^ Paul I. Forster: Diurnal insects associated with the flowers of Gomphocarpus physocarpus E. Mey. (Asclepiadaceae), an introduced weed in Australia. In: Biotropica. Vol. 26, No. 2, 1994, pp. 214-217, JSTOR 2388811 .
- ↑ a b Gomphocarpus physocarpus near Tropicos .
- ↑ Gomphocarpus physocarpus at www.helpster.de; accessed on October 6, 2017
- ↑ Alice Notten, 2010: Gomphocarpus physocarpus at plantzafrica.com .
Web links
- Grazyna Paczkowska, 1996: Data sheet of Gomphocarpus physocarpus at Western Australian Flora .