Herb willow

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Herb willow
Herb willow (Salix herbacea)

Herb willow ( Salix herbacea )

Systematics
Rosids
Eurosiden I
Order : Malpighiales (Malpighiales)
Family : Willow family (Salicaceae)
Genre : Pastures
Type : Herb willow
Scientific name
Salix herbacea
L.

The herb willow ( Salix herbacea ) is a plant from the genus of willow ( Salix ).

description

illustration
Habit, leaves and inflorescences
Herb willow, fruitful, on the Wildgrat in the Ötztal Alps in Austria at 2,490 meters above sea level

The herb willow grows as a deciduous, prostrate espalier shrub or creeping dwarf shrub like a carpet and only reaches heights of 2 to 10 centimeters. The lignified trunk crawls underground. The increase in thickness of the trunks is extremely small at less than 0.5 millimeters per year. Only the branches with two to three small leaves protrude from the earth. The foliage leaves , usually standing opposite to each other on short shoots, have short stems. The simple leaf blade is round, glabrous and shiny light green with a width of 5 to 20 millimeters.

The flowering period extends from May to September. The flowers are four to twelve in a terminal, short stalked, almost spherical, catkin- shaped inflorescence . The anthers are bright red before Ausstäuben, as well as the young fruit.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 38.

ecology

The herb willow is a Chamaephyte .

The herb willow shows adaptations to the insect-poor location and the long snow cover: it is pollinated by the wind and its seeds remain viable for a long time in the cold soil. It is often grazed by arctic herbivores such as the snowshoe hare and, along with grasses, is an important nutritional component of the woolly mammoth.

Occurrence

"The smallest of all trees" ( Carl von Linné ) is considered an Ice Age relic . The herb willow is widespread arctic-alpine in Asia , North America , in Europe south to the Pyrenees , Apennines and the Balkans .

It thrives best on lime-free and permanently moist rubble soils at altitudes from 1800 to 3200 meters. The site should be covered in snow for about 7–8 months. In the Allgäu Alps it rises up to 2400 meters above sea level. At the Schrecksee in Bavaria, it occurs even at 1810 meters above sea level.

The herb willow is a character species of the plant community Salicetum herbaceae from the association Salicion herbaceae, which like to settle in snow valleys on lime-poor soils with the yellow fling ( Sibbaldia procumbens ) or the dwarf dysentery ( Gnaphalium supinum ). The herb willow also occurs in the Luzuletum alpinopilosae or in humid societies of the associations Caricion curvulae or Nardion.

Taxonomy

Salix herbacea was first published in 1753 by Carl von Linné in Species Plantarum .

literature

  • Xaver Finkenzeller, Jürke Grau: Alpine flowers. Recognize and determine (=  Steinbach's natural guide ). Mosaik, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-576-11482-3 .
  • Wolfgang Adler, Karl Oswald, Raimund Fischer: Excursion flora of Austria . Ed .: Manfred A. Fischer. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-8001-3461-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Salix herbacea L., herb-willow. In: FloraWeb.de.
  2. a b c Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 310.
  3. Bas van Geel, André Aptroot, Claudia Baittinger, Hilary H. Birks, Ian D. Bull, Hugh B. Cross, Richard P. Evershed, Barbara Gravendeel, Erwin JO Kompanje, Peter Kuperus, Dick Mol, Klaas GJ Nierop, Jan Peter Pals, Alexei N. Tikhonov, Guido van Reenen, Peter H. van Tienderen: The ecological implications of a Yakutian mammoth's last meal. In: Quaternary Research. Volume 69, No. 3, 2008, pp. 361-376, DOI: 10.1016 / j.yqres.2008.02.004 ( PDF file ).
  4. Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 1, IHW, Eching 2001, ISBN 3-930167-50-6 , p. 409.
  5. Carl von Linné: Species Plantarum. Volume 2, Lars Salvius, Stockholm 1753, p. 1018 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.biodiversitylibrary.org%2Fopenurl%3Fpid%3Dtitle%3A669%26volume%3D1%26issue%3D%26spage%3D1018%26date%3D1753~GB%3D~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).

Web links

Commons : Herb willow ( Salix herbacea )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files