Phoenician juniper
| Phoenician juniper | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phoenician juniper ( Juniperus phoenicea var. Turbinata ) at Vaux Moise near Petra in Jordan |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Juniperus phoenicea | ||||||||||||
| L. |
The Phoenician juniper ( Juniperus phoenicea ), also Rotfrüchtiger juniper called, is a plant from the family of the cypress family (Cupressaceae). It is native to the Mediterranean . It is the natural symbol of the Canary Island El Hierro .
description
Habitus
The Phoenician juniper occurs as an evergreen shrub or tree , depending on the location . It can live up to 1,000 years. The broad and bushy shrub form reaches heights of growth between 3 and 5 meters. The rarer tree shape reaches heights of growth of up to 8 meters and forms a dense crown . The branches that make up the crown can be very deep. The straight and strong trunk can reach a diameter of up to 2 meters. The longitudinally cracked bark is gray-brown to reddish-brown in color and detaches from the trunk in scales or narrow strips. Due to resin pockets in the inner bark, the trunk gives off an aromatic odor. The shallow root system is able to firmly anchor the tree even on rocky locations. The species enters into mycorrhizal partnerships with various types of fungus.
Wood
The brown-yellow heartwood is surrounded by a relatively wide, white to light brown sapwood . The wood is very hard, dense and durable. The density with a wood moisture content of 12% is around 0.68 g / cm³.
Foliage
Young trees have blue-green needle-shaped leaves . These leaves are 5 to 14 millimeters long and 0.5 to 1 millimeters wide. On the upper side of the leaf there are two rows of stomata and a light central rib. The dark green scale leaves of the old trees are 1 to 1.5 millimeters long and arranged opposite one another. These egg-shaped to rhombic leaves lie close to the branches and are square in cross-section.
Flowers, cones and seeds
Both monoecious ( monoecious ) and dioecious ( diocese ) separate-sex populations occur. The flowering time falls in early spring. The almost spherical male flowers are terminally on branches. The female cones can be terminal or axially arranged. They have more than six fused seed scales, each of which has two ovules . The almost round berry cones ripen in the summer of the 2nd year. They are between 7 and 11 millimeters in size and are shiny red or red-brown in color when ripe. They have no tires. Each berry cone contains four to nine oval, somewhat angular seeds. The seeds are not poisonous, they are used as a medicine in medicine.
The seed coat is very hard. Phoenician juniper seeds take at least 2 years to germinate.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22.
Systematics
The Phoenician juniper is considered to be the only monocular juniper species in Europe. Because of the pronounced intraspecific differentiation, it was previously divided into several subspecies and varieties . Current scientific studies change and reduce the subdivision to 2 varieties (or species):
- Juniperus phoenicea var. Phoenicea : The tips of the branches are hardly tailed. The berry cones have a diameter of 8 to 10 millimeters. It occurs only in southern and eastern Spain, southwest and southern Portugal, and southern France. According to the WCSP, it is also viewed as an independent species.
- Juniperus phoenicea var. Turbinata (Guss.) Parl. (Syn .: Juniperus turbinata Guss. , Juniperus phoenicea subsp. Turbinata (Guss.) Nyman ): It has branches, the tips of which are clearly tailed. The berry cones reach a diameter of 12 to 14 millimeters. The distribution of this variety extends from the Atlantic islands of Madeira and the Canary Islands to Portugal , southern Spain with the Balearic Islands , the Mediterranean coasts of France with the island of Corsica , to Italy with the islands of Sardinia and Sicily and Greece . In North Africa, the variety can be found in Morocco and Tunisia . According to the WCSP, it is to be viewed as an independent species.
Distribution and location
The Phoenician juniper is a circum- Mediterranean tree species. Its distribution area extends in Europe from Portugal in the west to Cyprus , Crete , Turkey , further to Israel in the Middle East and to Saudi Arabia . In North Africa one finds the kind from Morocco , Algeria , Tunisia up to the edge of the Sahara and in Egypt . The western border of the distribution area runs over Madeira and the Canary Islands . The species occurs in all of Spain except for the northwest. In Portugal only the Atlantic coast is inhabited. They are also found in the continental south-east of France . On Corsica , Sardinia , Sicily and the Apennine peninsula you meet them in the mountains. On the Balkan Peninsula , the species occurs only on a narrow strip that stretches from Dalmatia , Croatia , the former Yugoslavia , Albania over the Peloponnese to the Aegean Islands and Crete. In North Africa, the stocks were largely destroyed by overexploitation.
The Phoenician juniper is heat and cold tolerant and has only low demands on the soil. It occurs at altitudes of up to 2,200 meters and is a pioneer tree species in the continental climate that needs light. Sandy as well as clayey, silicate and calcareous soils are settled. The locations have annual precipitation of at least 200 mm.
Diseases and pests
The Phoenician juniper is not seriously endangered by animal or vegetable pests. There are no known pests that specialize only in this species. Plant galls caused by a species of the genus Oligotrophus can form at the branch tips . The bacterium Pseudomonas syringae causes cancerous branch swellings to develop.
The Phoenician juniper is easily inflammable and therefore very vulnerable to fire.
use
The fine-grained wood is well suited for turning. It used to be used as construction, joinery and carpentry wood. This is no longer possible today, as there are no longer enough stems of the required dimensions. Straight trunks are processed into veneers for plywood . In Africa the wood is used as fuel and for the production of charcoal .
Some of the varieties are of horticultural importance. An essential oil can be obtained from the leaves and berry cones. The ancient Greek physician Pedanios Dioscurides mentions in his work Materia medica the use of the essential oils of Juniperus phoenicea and Juniperus sabina , the Sade tree, as an abortive in folk medicine . Modern research has shown toxicity in the case of the Sade tree.
Hazards and protective measures
The Phoenician juniper is included in the Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ), but it is designated as “Least Concern” because it is relatively widespread in the western Mediterranean.
With the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive No. 92/43 / EEC in the updated version of January 1, 2007 of the European Union (FFH-RL), Appendix 1, protected areas are designated for the following habitat types, to which the Phoenician juniper also belongs, required:
- Mediterranean coastal dunes with juniper species Juniperus spp. - The protection of these habitats is required as a priority
- Tree-shaped hardwood bushes (Matorrals) with juniper species Juniperus spp.
- Endemic forests with juniper species Juniperus spp. - The protection of these habitats is seen as a priority
literature
- Peter Schütt, Horst Weisgerber, Hans J. Schuck, Ulla Lang, Bernd Stimm, Andreas Roloff: Lexicon of Conifers. Distribution - Description - Ecology - Use; the great encyclopedia . Nikol, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-933203-80-5 , p. 227-231 .
- RP Adams, Sanko Nguyen, Nadia Achak: Geographic Variation in Juniperus phoenicea from the Canary Islands, Morocco and Spain, Based on RAPDS Analysis . In: Phytologia . tape 88 , no. 3 , p. 270-278 ( PDF ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ley 7/1991, de 30 de April, de símbolos de la naturaleza para las Islas Canarias
- ↑ Mohamed Bnouham, Hassane Mekhfi, Abdelkhaleq Legssyer, Abderrahim Ziyyat: Medicinal plants used in the treatment of diabetes in Morocco . In: Int J Diabetes & Metabolism (2002) 10: 33-50, page 37. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
- ^ Tropicos. [1]
- ↑ a b c Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Juniperus. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved March 29, 2019.
- ↑ Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN): Taxon: Juniperus phoenicea L. subsp. turbinata (cast.) Nyman. In: GRIN Taxonomy for Plants. United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, accessed June 12, 2010 .
- ^ Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN): Taxon: Juniperus phoenicea L. In: GRIN Taxonomy for Plants. United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, accessed June 12, 2010 .
- ↑ Juniperus phoenicea in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2017. Posted by: DJ Allen, 2016. Accessed July 17, 2020th
- ↑ Directive 92/43 / EEC of the Council of May 21, 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild animals and plants {consolidated = 2007-01-01
Web links
- RP Adams: The Juniperus of the World / Taxa of Juniperus. Retrieved June 9, 2010 (English).
- Christopher J. Earle: Juniperus phoenicea. In: The Gymnosperm Database. January 14, 2011, accessed January 26, 2011 .