Ruthenian brine

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Ruthenian brine
Salsola tragus.jpg

Ruthenian brine ( Kali tragus )

Systematics
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Foxtail family (Amaranthaceae)
Subfamily : Salsoloideae
Tribe : Salsoleae
Genre : Potash
Type : Ruthenian brine
Scientific name
Kali tragus
( L. ) Scop.

The Ruthenian salt herb ( Kali tragus ), also called Ukraine salt herb , Hungarian salt herb , steppe salt herb or Kali salt herb, is a steppe plant native to Eastern Europe and Central Asia from the subfamily Salsoloideae in the foxtail family (Amaranthaceae). She was abducted to steppe areas worldwide and is one of the most famous steppe walkers .

description

Vegetative characteristics

Stems with twigs
flowering branches

The Ruthenian salt herb is an annual plant and reaches heights of 30 to 100 cm. It grows upright and is branched off from the base. The stem is striped white or purple. The leaves are half-petiole-round to petiole-round, broadened at the base and have skin edges and are 1.5 to 4 cm long and 0.5 to 1.5 mm wide. They are bald or hairy. The end of the leaf is thorny and hardened.

Inflorescences and flowers

The hermaphroditic flowers sit in spike-like inflorescences in the axilla of bracts , which are narrowly ovate to sub-like, skin-margined at the base and thorny at the end. Laterally they are surrounded by two egg-shaped bracts with a thorn-like hardened tip. The inflorescence consists of five narrow ovoid, membranous, bare tepals from the middle . There are five stamens. The two scars are thread-shaped and three to four times as long as the stylus .

The flowering period in Central Europe extends from July to October. Pollination is usually done by the wind or often by self-pollination.

largely ripe winged fruits

fruit

When the fruit ripens, the flower shell hardens in the lower part and surrounds the fruit. From the back of the tepals, membranous wings with nerves develop. Three of the wings are sometimes bright purple, kidney-shaped to obovate. The other two wings are narrower. The winged expansion unit reaches a diameter of 7 to 10 mm. (Fruits without wings are also rare.) The tepal lobes above the wings are either thin-skinned, soft and wrinkled or one or two lobes are firm and upright.

The plant is a steppe roller .

Chromosome number

The number of chromosomes is 36, so with a basic chromosome number of x = 9 the plant is tetraploid .

distribution

The Ruthenian salt herb is native to the Mediterranean region through Eastern Europe to Southwest Asia and Central Asia. It is now widely naturalized in South Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. In China, it grows on dunes, sandy and rocky locations, as well as on the seashore.

In Austria it is native to the Pannonian region (Burgenland, Vienna, Lower Austria) and occurs in dry sand and gravel locations, on sandy fields and at train stations. It is common locally, otherwise only scattered to rare. It is limited to the colline altitude level . In Central Europe it is a species of the Salsolion association.

In Germany the species only grows as a neophyte in the coastal area and in sandy places inland.

In North America, Ruthenian brine was probably introduced with flaxseed from Russia in the 1870s and is now a major weed . It grows here on disturbed sites, on roadsides and in fields, as well as on sandy soils near the coast and rivers, in semi-deserts and deserts. Here it rises up to 2500 m above sea level.

Systematics

Plant with red fruits

Kali tragus is a taxonomically difficult clan because it is morphologically very diverse. For a long time the species was placed in the genus Salsola , but after Salsola was divided up on the basis of more recent molecular genetic based studies, the species was placed in the genus Kali . Occasionally it was listed as a subspecies of the Kali salt herb ( Kali turgida ). With this and some similar species, Kali tragus is now grouped together to form the Kali tragus aggregate ( Salsola kali aggregate).

Synonyms are Salsola aptera Iljin , Salsola australis R.Br. , Salsola iberica (Sennen & Pau) Czerep. , Salsola kali subsp. iberica (Sennen & Pau) Rilke , Salsola kali subsp. rosacea Čelak. , Salsola kali subsp. ruthenica (Iljin) Soó , Salsola kali subsp. tragus (L.) Čelak. , Salsola pestifer A. Nelson , Salsola ruthenica Iljin and Salsola tragus L.

There are two subspecies in Europe:

  • Kali tragus subsp. tragus
  • Kali tragus subsp. ponticum (Pall.) Mosyakin (Syn .: Salsola tragus subsp. pontica (Pall.) Rilke , Salsola pontica (Pall.) Degen , Salsola kali subsp. pontica (Pall.) Mosyakin , Salsola ruthenica subsp. pontica (Pall.) Iljin , Salsola kali var. Pontica Pall. ): This is the predominant clan in inland Europe on non-saline soils and also the subspecies found in Austria.

symbolism

Steppe roller
Ruthenian brine in autumn (steppe roller)

The association of the Ruthenian salt herb with Western films led to its role as an important symbol in a variety of audiovisual media. It now stands for areas that are deserted, arid and often barren, usually steppes and deserts .

A frequent use as dynamic scenery is when protagonists reach a long deserted or desolate area: The Ruthenian brine - in such contexts also known as steppe runner - will then roll through the scene, often accompanied by the sound of the dull and dry wind.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Manfred A. Fischer, Karl Oswald, Wolfgang Adler: Excursions flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol . 3rd, improved edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9 .
  2. ^ A b Siegmund Seybold (Ed.): Schmeil-Fitschen interactive . CD-ROM, version 1.1. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2002, ISBN 3-494-01327-6 .
  3. ↑ Ruthenian brine. In: FloraWeb.de.
  4. ↑ a b c d Ruthenian brine . In: BiolFlor, the database of biological-ecological characteristics of the flora of Germany.
  5. ↑ a b Henning Haeupler, Thomas Muer: picture atlas of the fern and flowering plants of Germany . Ed .: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (=  The fern and flowering plants of Germany . Volume 2 ). Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2000, ISBN 3-8001-3364-4 , pp. 96 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Gelin Zhu, Sergei L. Mosyakin & Steven E. Clemants: Salsola tragus . In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Eds.): Flora of China . Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 2003, ISBN 1-930723-27-X , pp. 411 (English, online ).
  7. ↑ Salsola tragus chromosome number in Tropicos , accessed October 24, 2017.
  8. ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp.  351 .
  9. ↑ a b Sergei L. Mosyakin: Salsola tragus . In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (Ed.): Flora of North America North of Mexico . Volume 4: Magnoliophyta: Caryophyllidae, part 1 . Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford a. a. 2003, ISBN 0-19-517389-9 , pp. 399 ff . (English, online ). .
  10. ↑ Hossein Akhani, Gerald Edwards, Eric H. Roalson: Diversification Of The Old World Salsoleae sl (Chenopodiaceae): Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis Of Nuclear And Chloroplast Data Sets And A Revised Classification In: International Journal of Plant Sciences. Volume 168, No. 6, 2007, pp. 931-956, doi: 10.1086 / 518263 .
  11. ↑ a b c Pertti Uotila: Chenopodiaceae (pro parte majore): Salsola tragus. In: Euro + Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. Berlin 2011.

Web links

Commons : Ruthenian Saltwort  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files