Japanese storax tree

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Japanese storax tree
Styrax japonicus.JPG

Japanese storax tree ( Styrax japonicus )

Systematics
Nuclear eudicotyledons
Asterids
Order : Heather-like (Ericales)
Family : Storax trees (Styracaceae)
Genre : Storax trees ( Styrax )
Type : Japanese storax tree
Scientific name
Styrax japonicus
Siebold & Zucc.

The Japanese storax tree ( Styrax japonicus ) is a small tree with white flowers from the storax family (Styracaceae). The natural range of the species is in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Laos, Vietnam and in the Philippines. It is often cultivated for its decorative flowers.

description

Branch with leaves
blossoms
fruit

The Japanese Storax tree is a 4 to 8, rarely up to 10 meter high tree with a broad, richly branched crown and widely protruding branches. The branches are purple in color, thin and spread out. Young shoots are covered with star hairs and somewhat flattened, they later become terete. The leaves are alternate. They have a 5 to 10 millimeter long stem. The leaf blade is paper-like to almost leathery, 4 to 10 centimeters long and 2 to 5, rarely also up to 6 centimeters wide, oval, oblong-oval to ovoid-oval, pointed or short-pointed, with a wedge-shaped to broadly wedge-shaped base, with entire margins or on the tip sawn away. Five to seven secondary pairs of nerves are formed, the third-order leaf veins are arranged like a network. They stand out clearly on both leaf sides and, together with the leaf axils, are sparsely covered with star hairs. Otherwise both sides are bare.

The inflorescences are 5 to 8 centimeters long, terminal clusters of five to eight flowers . The flower stalk is thin, 2.5 to 3.5 inches long, glabrous or sparsely star-haired. The flowers are 2 to 2.8 centimeters in diameter and are slightly pendulous. The calyx is membranous, glabrous or sparsely star-haired, 4 to 5 millimeters long, 3 to 5 millimeters wide and serrated irregularly. The corolla tube is 3 to 5 millimeters long, the corolla lobes are ovate, obovate or oval, 1.6 to 2.5 millimeters long and 5 to 7, rarely up to 9 millimeters wide. The stamens are shorter than the corolla, the stamens are somewhat widened, and white shaggy hairs on the free upper parts. The fruits are egg-shaped, pointed to a short point, 8 to 14 millimeters long, with a diameter of 8 to 10 millimeters, irregularly wrinkled and densely covered with gray-tomentose hairs. The seeds are brown and clearly wrinkled. The Japanese storax tree blooms from April to July, the fruits ripen from September to December.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 40.

Occurrence and location requirements

The natural range is in Japan on the islands of Honshū , Shikoku , Kyushu and the Ryūkyū Islands , on the Korean peninsula , in the Chinese provinces of Anhui , Fujian , Gansu , Guangdong , Guangxi , Guizhou , Henan , Hubei , Hunan , Jiangsu , Jiangxi , Shaanxi , Shandong , Shanxi , Sichuan , Yunnan , Zhejiang and the Tibet Autonomous Region , Taiwan , Laos , Vietnam and the Philippine islands of Batan and Camiguin . The Japanese Storax tree grows in cool, moist forests at an altitude of 400 to 1800 meters on acidic to weakly alkaline, sandy-loamy to loamy, humus and nutrient-rich soils in light-shaded and winter-mild locations. The species is moderately frost hardy .

Systematics

The Japanese storax tree ( Styrax japonicus ) is a species from the genus of the storax trees ( Styrax ) in the family of the storax trees (Styracaceae). The species was in 1837 by Philipp Franz von Siebold and Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini first scientifically valid described . The generic name Styrax comes from Latin and was the name of the Storax tree as early as the Romans. The specific epithet japonicus refers to the distribution area in Japan.

There are two varieties:

  • Styrax japonicus var. Calycothrix Gilg : the calyx and stem are sparsely covered with star hair
  • Styrax japonicus var. Japonicus with a glabrous calyx and stem

use

The Japanese storax tree is often used as an ornamental shrub because of its decorative flowers .

proof

literature

  • Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven (Ed.): Flora of China . Volume 15: Myrsinaceae through Loganiaceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 1996, ISBN 0-915279-37-1 , pp. 257 (English).
  • Andreas Roloff , Andreas Bärtels: Flora of the woods. Purpose, properties and use. With a winter key from Bernd Schulz. 3rd, corrected edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5614-6 , p. 634.
  • Jost Fitschen: Woody flora . 12th, revised and expanded edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2007, ISBN 3-494-01422-1 , p. 823 .
  • Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-937872-16-7 (reprint from 1996).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German name according to Roloff et al .: Flora der Gehölze , p. 634 and according to Fitschen: Gehölzflora , p. 823
  2. a b c d Shumei Huang, James W. Grimes: Styrax japonicus , in the Flora of China , Volume 15, p. 257
  3. a b c d Roloff et al .: Flora der Gehölze , p. 634
  4. Styrax japonicus at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
  5. a b Styrax japonicus. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). United States Department of Agriculture, accessed May 21, 2012 .
  6. Exactly: Etymological Dictionary of Botanical Plant Names , p. 617
  7. Exactly: Etymological Dictionary of Botanical Plant Names , p. 313

Web links

Commons : Japanese Storax tree ( Styrax japonicus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files