Caucasian maple

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caucasian maple
Caucasian maple (Acer trautvetteri)

Caucasian maple ( Acer trautvetteri )

Systematics
Eurosiden II
Order : Sapindales (Sapindales)
Family : Soap tree family (Sapindaceae)
Subfamily : Horse chestnut family (Hippocastanoideae)
Genre : Maples ( Acer )
Type : Caucasian maple
Scientific name
Acer trautvetteri
Medw.

The Caucasus maple ( Acer trautvetteri ) is a plant from the genus of maple ( Acer ).

description

bark
The crimson fruit wings are a striking distinguishing feature from a distance

The Caucasian maple is a broad, crowned tree that reaches heights of up to 16 meters. The bark is gray and smooth. The bark of young twigs is dark red-brown and bare. The leaf buds are very thick. The opposite arranged leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The deep five-lobed leaf blade is heart-shaped and 10 to 15 centimeters wide. The leaf lobes are ovate, pointed and irregularly serrated and finely lobed. The upper side of the leaf is deep green and shiny and the underside is blue-green. The veins of young leaves are hairy. The flowers appear after the foliage leaves. The parallel, often overlapping fruit wings are 4 to 5 centimeters long and bright red.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 26.

Similar Art

The Caucasian maple ( Acer trautvetteri ) is distinguished from the very similar Greek maple ( Acer heldreichii ) by the leaf lobes that are only incised up to the middle of the leaf blade, while the bud covers of the Caucasian maple are reddish in color with the Greek maple (the common name is next to Caucasian maple therefore also Redbud maple).

Occurrence, ecology and site conditions

Habitat Caucasus. The Caucasian maple is widespread in the North Caucasus as far as the Elbrus (large ice cap in the right middle distance). The Caucasian maple can be found in the inner valleys above the dark coniferous forests. It is common everywhere in the valleys west of the Elbrus, including in the great Teberda Valley.

The Caucasian maple is an endemic - relictic sub-Mediterranean floral element and character tree of the tree line of the Colchis , the Caucasus and the Pontic coast of Asia Minor (Russian common name Клён Траутфеттера or Клён высокогорный). From an ecological point of view, it is adapted to the cool and humid climatic conditions of the subalpine altitude level on freshly ground, nutrient-rich, deep to block-rich altitudes between 1800 and 2500 meters. On the other hand, it does not tolerate drought, but can thrive on crevice soils where the roots find water at a greater depth between crevices. In its habitat it is next to the saber-growing birches ( e.g. Betula litwinowii ) the hardest deciduous tree .

In the complex high mountains of the Caucasus, climatically different types of altitude change with the precipitation and temperature gradients from west to east. This is associated with a pronounced climate-related ecological change in vegetation ; the West Caucasus has oceanic humid step sequences, analogous to the altitude steps of the Northern Alps; in the warmer and drier sub-Mediterranean tinted Transcaucasus follow above subtropical Hyrcanic relict forests , which contain a significant proportion of paleo-endemic remnants of the tertiary flora with Persian ironwood , zelkove , wingnut and the like. a. have steps with beech-oak-hornbeam mixed forests, as well as the Persian oak and hornbeam ; the dry and cold Central Caucasus , lying in the rain shadow , is shaped montane by dry valleys with Pinus hamata ; Further in the continental and dry east in Dagestan there are sequences of semi-deserts and steppes that prevail down to the subalpine and alpine level, forests are only widespread here like islands.

The Caucasus maple has its distribution center in the lower subalpine level on the northern roofing in the West Caucasus (catchment area of ​​the Kuban ) where it can be found below the saber-growing (due to snow thrust ) birch-rhododendron forests ( Rhododendron caucasicum , Rhododendron luteum and Betula litwinowii ) . It borders on the boreal coniferous forests with Nordmann fir and Oriental spruce . This specific characteristic maple tier is accompanied by interspersed tall herbaceous meadows. In the Teberda area they are distributed zonally and occupy altitudes between 2000 and 2100 meters. Above that follow saber-growing birch-rhododendron forests up to 2400 meters.

Oleg Sergeevič Grebenščikov counts the Caucasus maple as Edifikator a separate formation of the lower subalpine zone as in the Teberda nature reserve in the West Caucasus (in the French publication in Transektschema as érable de haute montagne signifiert ). Already in the Central Caucasus with its dry valleys it no longer occurs. It can then be found interspersed in the birch forests in the subtropical-toned Abkhazian mountain forest , without developing a characteristic step here. Compared to comparable locations in the Western Alps (e.g. Grande Chartreuse ), habitats of the Caucasus maple are more rainy. These forests are characteristically flooded with light by an open canopy and are locations of the Caucasian tall herbaceous vegetation , which is comparatively not observed in the Alps. Its altitude is also remarkable, since the lower and upper subalpine level (as an ecotone between the alpine high mountain meadows and the closed montane forests) is on average 400 meters higher than in the Alps.

The Caucasian maple is one of the demanding forest trees, it shows high demands on water supply, prefers cool temperatures and, especially as a fully grown tree, has high demands on sunlight. However, young trees are also able to emerge under the shade of closed forests and are superior to the oriental beech, for example, in their location . The leaf litter of the Caucasian maple is easily decomposable and contributes to the build-up of a gauze humus layer as well as the rapid development of mountain soils ( rock humus soil , skeletal humus soil ) and forest soils. The Caucasian maple is capable of stabilizing the upper forest line to contribute in the areas of its natural area.

Systematics

Due to the leaf characteristics and similarities in the site conditions, the Euxinian - Colchian Caucasus maple ( Acer trautvetteri ) is often considered a subspecies of the Greek maple ( Acer heldreichii ). With the more differentiated Hyrkanian velvet maple ( Acer velutium ), they contrast the mountain maple as an evolutionary group in the branch of development . However, phylogenetic methods for genealogy research using ITS sequencing have not yet been able to provide any definitive clarification as to whether the Caucasian maple is a separate species, infraspecific form, or an ecotype of the Greek maple. Comparative analyzes of the cuticle in terms of the shape and structure of the stomata , which are typical distinguishing features of the Acer section, suggest the correspondence of both species due to the correspondence of distinctive features in their morphology . Since maples with characteristics of both Acer trautvetteri and Acer heldreichii have been observed on the Balkan Peninsula , this sympatric occurrence means that no precise information on the actual geographical distribution is currently possible.

Intermediate forms between the Caucasian and Greek maple occur in populations in the northeast of their Greek range. According to Arne Strid , the north-eastern populations of Greece also correspond to Acer heldreichii subsp. macropterum (Vis.) Pax (= Acer heldreichii subsp. visianii ). On the other hand, specimens that closely resemble the Greek maple were also found in the distribution area of ​​the Caucasian maple in northwestern Anatolia (Bolu province). The actual distribution area of the “real Caucasian maple” is northern Iran via Armenia westwards to European Turkey.

General differences between the Caucasian and Greek maples are the leaf lobes, which are only slightly incised over the middle in the former and almost to the base in the latter.

literature

  • Guido W. Grimm, Thomas Denk, Vera Hemleben: Evolutionary history and systematics of Acer section Acer - a case study of low-level phylogenetics. In: Plant Systematics and Evolution. Volume 267, Issue 1-4, Springer, 2007, pp. 215-253 ( online at Academia.edu ).
  • Helmut Pirc: Maples . Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1994, ISBN 3-8001-6554-6 , pp. 141 ff .
  • P. Fukarek : Remarks on some Balkan and Balkano-Carpathian tree and shrub species. In: Fedde's repertory. Volume 81, Issue 1-5, Wiley, 1970, doi : 10.1002 / fedr.19700810113 , pp. 163-170.

Web links

Commons : Caucasian maple ( Acer trautvetteri )  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gerd Krüssmann: Handbook of the deciduous trees. 2nd ed., Volume 1, AD, Paul Parey, Berlin 1976, p. 112
  2. ↑ Acer trautvetteri at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
  3. ↑ AG Dolukhanov1978: The timberline and subalpine belt in the Caucasus mountains, USSR. In: Arctic and Alpine Research. Volume 10, No. 2, 1978, pp. 409-422 (online: JSTOR)
  4. ^ OS Grebenščikov: Vegetation structure in the high mountains of the Balkan peninsula and the Caucasus, USSR. In: Arctic and Alpine Research. Volume 10, No. 2, 1978, pp. 443-447 (online: JSTOR)
  5. ^ OS Grebenschikov, YA Isakov, RP Zimina, DN Panfilov: Les ecosystems naturelles et leur etagernent dans le Caucasus. In: Revue de Geographie Alpine, Vol. 69, № 2, 333-352, Grenoble 1975 (online: PDF) ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.persee.fr
  6. ^ OS Grebenschikov, YA Isakov, RP Zimina, DN Panfilov: Les ecosystems naturelles et leur etagernent dans le Caucasus. P. 183
  7. ^ OS Grebenščikov & Paul Ozenda : Principaux traits de ressemblance et de différence de la couverture végétale. In: Revue de Geographie Alpine, Vol. 62, № 2, 169-190, Grenoble 1981 (online: PDF) ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.persee.fr
  8. ^ OS Grebenščikov: Vegetation structure in the high mountains of the Balkan peninsula and the Caucasus, USSR. P. 443
  9. ^ OS Grebenščikov: Vegetation structure in the high mountains of the Balkan peninsula and the Caucasus, USSR. P. 444, Figure I.
  10. ^ OS Grebenščikov & Paul Ozenda : Principaux traits de ressemblance et de différence de la couverture végétale. P. 338
  11. ^ OS Grebenščikov & Paul Ozenda : Principaux traits de ressemblance et de différence de la couverture végétale. P. 347
  12. ^ OS Grebenščikov & Paul Ozenda : Principaux traits de ressemblance et de différence de la couverture végétale. P. 341
  13. ^ OS Grebenščikov & Paul Ozenda : Principaux traits de ressemblance et de différence de la couverture végétale. P. 341
  14. ^ OS Grebenščikov & Paul Ozenda : Principaux traits de ressemblance et de différence de la couverture végétale. P. 342
  15. ↑ a b G. W. Grimm, T. Denk, V. Hemleben: Evolutionary history and systematics of Acer section Acer-a case study of low-level phylogenetics. In: Plant Systematics and Evolution. Springer, 2007, Volume 267, Issue 1-4, pp. 215–253 (online: Academia.edu)
  16. ↑ a b J. Kovar-Eder, Ernst Vitek, Margit Ströbitzer-Hermann: Cuticular analysis investigations on Acer heldreichii ORPH. ex Boiss. ssp. heldreichii and ssp. trautvetteri (MEDW.) MURRAY and Acer pseudoplatanus L. In: Annals of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. 102 B, Vienna December 2000, pp. 409-416 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  17. ↑ a b c Arne Strid: Mountain Flora of Greece. Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 582.
  18. ^ Jost Fitschen: Woody flora. 11th, enlarged and corrected edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim, 2002, ISBN 3-494-01268-7 , pp. 74-13.