Giant liverwort
| Giant liverwort | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hepatica maxima | ||||||||||||
| ( Nakai ) Nakai |
The giant liverwort ( Hepatica maxima ( Nakai ) Nakai ); Korean name: 섬 노루귀 (Hepatica Island) is a species of plant within the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). The plant is endemic to the South Korean island of Ulleungdo about 140 km east of the Korean peninsula in the Sea of Japan . In the frost-poor climate, plants with the largest leaves and flowers in this genus were formed.
description
Hepatica maxima resembles the native liverwort in its growth and leaf shape, but not in the flower . It is a perennial, herbaceous shrub and becomes 20–40 cm high, making it the largest of all Hepatica species. The new leaves appear together with the new flowers in March – April. The three-lobed leaves are entire , strongly rounded, 8–16 cm wide and 6–9 cm long. The leaves are biennial and only wilt after the seed heads have wilted the following year. The flowers consist of three strikingly large green bracts (10–25 mm long and 6–20 mm wide), which are much larger than the actual 6–8 bracts. These are pure white or slightly pink with a length of only approx. 7 mm. The fruit heads are black nuts. References to images on Korean websites can be found here.
distribution
It is endemic to the South Korean island of Ulleungdo (volcanic origin), about 140 km east of the Korean peninsula in the Sea of Japan, and possibly also on neighboring smaller islands. The locations are on the north-facing slopes of the island mountains. It occurs in beech forests ( Fagus multinervis , or Fagus engleriana var. Multinervis - endemic ) at an altitude of 600 to 700 meters. The island has warm, very humid summers and relatively mild winters (temperature minimum −5 ° C) with moderate snowfall.
use
The species is occasionally used as an ornamental plant.
Taxonomy
Hepatica maxima is diploid with chromosome number 2n = 14.
literature
- Michael Alexander Commichau: Hepatica: Current overview of the genus. supplemented edition. Self-published, Suhl 2007, DNB 986355690 . (hepatica-privat.de)
- Searching for images for the Korean name 섬 노루귀 with search engines provides informative and surprising results.
Individual evidence
- ^ T. Nakai: in Journ. Yep Bot. Volume 13, 1937, p. 306, in clavi, Latin.
- ↑ Su-Young Jung et al: The Distribution of Vascular Plants in Ulleungdo and Nearby Island Regions (Gwaneumdo, Jukdo), Korea. In: Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity. Vol. 6, No. 1, 2013, pp. 123–156. doi: 10.7229 / jkn.2013.6.1.123
- ↑ Marlene Ahlburg: Hepatica maxima. In: gardening practice. (Eugen Ulmer). Vol. 20, No. 7, July 1994, pp. 13-15.
- ↑ Flowering plants at the natural site (1x) (ulleung.go.kr)
- ↑ Flowering plants at the natural site (8 photos) (blog.daum.net)
- ↑ Flowers (5 photos) - (ibric.org)
- ↑ Infructescence and flowers (blog.daum.net)
- ↑ H. Weiss, BY Sun, TF Stuessy, CH Kim, H. Kato, M. Wakabayashi: Karyology of plant species endemic to Ullung Island (Korea) and selected relatives in peninsular Korea and Japan. In: Bot. J. Linn. Soc. Volume 138, No. 1, 2002, pp. 93-105.