Green hellebore
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Green hellebore ( Helleborus viridis ), flower |
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The green hellebore ( Helleborus viridis ) is a species of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). This poisonous plant was previously used as a medicinal plant .
description
The green hellebore is a deciduous, perennial herbaceous plant that usually reaches heights of 20 to 40, but rarely up to 60 centimeters. The stem is bare to the inflorescence .
The leaves are divided into long petioles and leaf blades. The palmate leaf blades are seven to nine pieces with sawn sections. The foliage leaves flow over the bracts into the bracts, which are actually the sepals. In contrast to the snow rose ( Helleborus niger ), the green hellebore usually has two basal leaves that do not overwinter.
The flowering period extends from March to May. The semi-pendulous flowers are light to yellow-green in color, spread out flat and 4 to 6 centimeters in size. The green hellebore produces two to five many-seeded follicles per flower .
The chromosome number for both subspecies is 2n = 32.
Occurrence
The distribution area of Helleborus viridis is mainly in southern Europe , but it also occurs in Central Europe . The original distribution of the green hellebore is unclear, as it was cultivated as a medicinal plant and has repeatedly overgrown. Its Central European area extends northwards to England , Belgium , northern Germany , Czechoslovakia and Poland and southwards to Spain and northern Italy .
It settles in the northern part of the low mountain range (about up to the Lahn ), in the Odenwald , on the Upper and High Rhine, in the Alpine foothills, in eastern and northern Austria light beech forests. Overall, it is very rare in Central Europe , but occasionally occurs in populations with a large number of individuals. In Germany it grows sporadically from the lowlands to the mountainous regions. In the Alps it occurs at altitudes of up to 1000 meters. In Central Europe it thrives best in deep, humus-rich, calcareous and sludge- rich clay soils in forests and bushes. It occurs especially in societies of the order Fagetalia.
The green hellebore has lost many locations since the end of the Second World War .
In the natural habitat, however, it is usually protected.
Subspecies
There are two subspecies:
- Helleborus viridis subsp. occidentalis (Reuter) Schiffner : The leaves are bare underneath. It occurs in Western Europe.
- Helleborus viridis subsp. viridis : The leaves are hairy underneath. It occurs in Central Europe and in the Western Alps.
Toxicity and Ingredients
All parts of the plant are very poisonous.
The main active ingredients are: about 0.1% Hellebrin , as well as the alkaloids celliamine , sprintillamine and sprintillin . In the roots is also Desglucohellebrin and bufadienolide 14-hydroxy-3-oxo-1,4,20,22-bufatetraenolid present.
The effect of the alkaloids is very close to that of cevadine ( veratrine ), aconitine and dolphinine . It contains about 0.1% Helleborein , as well as Hellebrin , Celliamine , Sprintillamine and other ingredients. The main effect is an excitation of the motor brain centers (first of the breathing, then restlessness and cramps, finally paralysis, especially respiratory paralysis); on the heart, the viridis alkaloids produce bradycardia and negative inotropy . Celiamine and sprintillamine likely kill by directly damaging the respiratory center.
use
The poisonous green hellebore was previously cultivated as a medicinal plant. Among other things, a sneeze powder was obtained from the dried "rootstock" , which is also the reason for the common German name green hellebore. Helleborus viridis was often used in medical history like Helleborus niger .
It is used as an ornamental plant because of its unusual flower color .
swell
literature
- Bruno P. Kremer: Steinbach's great plant guide. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4903-6 .
- Oskar Sebald, Siegmund Seybold, Georg Philippi (Hrsg.): The fern and flowering plants of Baden-Württemberg . 2nd, supplemented edition. tape 1 : General Part, Special Part (Pteridophyta, Spermatophyta): Lycopodiaceae to Plumbaginaceae . Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3322-9 .
- Dietmar Aichele, Heinz-Werner Schwegler: The flowering plants of Central Europe . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : Yew family to butterfly family . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-440-08048-X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Jaakko Jalas, Juha Suominen (ed.): Atlas Florae Europaeae. Distribution of Vascular Plants in Europe. 8. Nymphaeaceae to Ranunculaceae. Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, The Committee for Mapping the Flora of Europe & Societas Biologica Fennica Vanamo, Helsinki 1989, ISBN 951-9108-07-6 , p. 25.
- ↑ Helleborus viridis at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ↑ a b Lutz Roth, Max Daunderer, Kurt Kormann: Toxic Plants - Plant Poisons. Occurrence, effect, therapy, allergic and phototoxic reactions. With a special section about poisonous animals. 6th, revised edition, special edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86820-009-6 .
- ↑ The green hellebore as a poisonous plant at www.gifte.de.
- ^ Gerhard Madaus: Textbook of biological remedies. Volume II. Olms, Hildesheim / New York 1976, ISBN 3-487-05891-X , pp. 1527–1528 (reprint of the Leipzig 1938 edition) ( online ).
Web links
- Green hellebore. In: FloraWeb.de.
- Green hellebore . In: BiolFlor, the database of biological-ecological characteristics of the flora of Germany.
- Profile and distribution map for Bavaria . In: Botanical Information Hub of Bavaria .
- Helleborus viridis L. In: Info Flora , the national data and information center for Swiss flora . Retrieved October 17, 2015.
- Thomas Meyer: Data sheet with identification key and photos at Flora-de: Flora von Deutschland (old name of the website: Flowers in Swabia )
- Profile at heilkräuter.de .
