Gigantic tragacanth

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Gigantic tragacanth
Gigantic tragacanth (Astragalus cicer)

Gigantic tragacanth ( Astragalus cicer )

Systematics
Order : Fabales (Fabales)
Family : Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily : Butterflies (Faboideae)
Tribe : Galegeae
Genre : Tragacanth ( astragalus )
Type : Gigantic tragacanth
Scientific name
Astragalus cicer
L.

The Astragalus Cicer ( Astragalus cicer ) is a plant of the genus Astragalus ( Astragalus ) in the subfamily of Schmetterlingsblütler (Faboideae) within the family of the Leguminosae (Fabaceae).

description

Illustration of flower and fruit
Habit, leaves, inflorescences and fruits
Blossom, disassembled
Fruit cluster
Habit, leaves, inflorescences and fruits

Vegetative characteristics

The gigantic tragacanth grows as a perennial herbaceous plant and reaches heights of 30 to 100 centimeters. The prostrate to upright stems are scattered with hairy, pressed down with simple trichomes .

The alternate leaves are arranged in a petiole and a leaf blade. The pinnate leaf blade has 7 to 14 pairs of leaflets . The entire-margined and short-stalked leaflets are ovate to lanceolate or elliptical and hairy on both sides, especially below. They are partly prickly or round-pointed to pointed. There are more or less overgrown and fine-haired, small stipules present.

Generative characteristics

The flowering period extends from May to August. The dense and axillary inflorescences contain many flowers. The long inflorescence stem is 1/2 to about the same length as the associated leaf.

The hermaphrodite and sessile to short-stalked butterfly flowers are zygomorphic with a length of about 1.5 centimeters and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The tubular calyx with relatively short, narrow and pointed tips is hairy black. The crown is pale yellow or yellowish-white.

The inflated, small and beaked , egg-shaped to spherical, multi-seeded legume is 10 to 15 millimeters long and has shaggy hairs. The fruits often stay longer on the plant. The yellowish to orange seeds are smooth, flattened, slightly heart- to kidney-shaped and about 2.2-3 millimeters in size.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 64.

ecology

The gigantic tragacanth is a deep-rooted and clay-soil pointer.

From an ecological point of view, these are typical butterfly flowers with a folding mechanism. The anthers and stigmas ripen simultaneously in this species. The pleasantly scented flowers are mainly pollinated by bumblebees .

The legume of the gigantic tragacanth is inflated by carbon dioxide , similar to that of the bladder bush. This is created by "breathing" carbohydrates . When immature, the fruit walls are green; with increasing ripeness and thus drying out, the fruit walls change their color to dark brown. In September the fruit walls are usually thin like parchment.

The giggle tragacanth uses a number of different spreading strategies . The blistered fruits can be driven away by the wind as trolleys. Botanically this spreading strategy is also called Chamaechorie - it is rare among Central European plants. However, the diaspores of the giggle tragacanth are also spread semachor . The fruit walls, swollen by rain, tear open and the seeds are scattered out of the opening by the wind.

Occurrence

The gigantic tragacanth occurs in almost all of Europe and in Asia as far as Siberia and the area around Lake Baikal . It grows mainly on poor grass , along the edges of fields and light bushes. In Central Europe it thrives on warm summer, moderately dry to fresh, base-rich, more or less humus or raw, stony or pure clay soils. Astragalus cicer is a character species of the Trifolio-Astragaletum ciceri from the association Geranion sanguinei in Central Europe , but also occurs in plant communities of the association Erico-Pinion or the class Agropyretea intermedio-repentis. It rarely occurs in Germany.

literature

  • Angelika Lüttig and Juliane Kasten: Rosehip & Co - Blossoms, fruits and spread of European plants. Fauna Verlag, Nottuln 2003, ISBN 3-93-598090-6
  • James Duke: Handbook of Legumes. Plenum Press, 1981, ISBN 978-1-4684-8153-2 , p. 22 f.

Web links

Commons : Gigantic tragacanth ( Astragalus cicer )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Astragalus cicer L., gigantic tragacanth. In: FloraWeb.de.
  2. ↑ a b c d Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , p. 602.