Mexican hammer bush
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Mexican hammer bush ( Cestrum elegans ) |
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The Mexican bush hammer ( Cestrum elegans mentioned), also Red hammer Bush, is a plant type from the genus of cestrum ( Cestrum ).
description
Vegetative characteristics
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The Mexican hammer bush reaches a height between 75 centimeters and five meters. The few, fine, fluffy branches are purple and covered with transparent, simple or minimally branched hairs . The branches are curved and reach lengths of 30 centimeters to one meter. The lanceolate or oval leaves are arranged alternately . They are between seven and eleven and a half inches long and two and a half to five and a half inches wide. The leaves are increasingly reduced towards flowering. The upper side of the leaf is covered with half a millimeter long hairs, especially along the veins, but in some areas it is also hairless. The underside of the leaves, on the other hand, is more densely hairy, where they can be up to a millimeter long along the leaf veins.
Inflorescences and flowers
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The inflorescences are cymes that are in the axils of the upper leaves or at the end. They usually consist of five to 15 individual flowers. The flower stalk, which is crossed by one to two millimeters long bracts , is about one millimeter long. The flowers are dark red, purple or white. The individual hairless calyxes measure four and a half to six millimeters. The one and a half millimeter large calyx lobes are erect and triangular in shape. They are ciliated with 200 micrometers long hairs on their edges. The 1.6 to 2.3 centimeters large, non-scented crown narrows towards the base and tip. The nine to twelve millimeters long, hairless stamens arise four millimeters above the corolla tube base . The round anthers reach a diameter of one millimeter. The ovary is hairless; the stylus between 12 and 15 millimeters long, the scar is head-shaped.
Fruits and seeds
For the year-round fruit ripening, the calyx enlarges to up to seven millimeters and encloses the base of the red-violet berries . They are spherical with diameters between eight and 13 millimeters. Inside, the berries are light pink to white and have eight prism-shaped elongated seeds . The seeds are 3 millimeters long and two millimeters wide and dark in color.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 16.
Occurrence and locations
The Mexican hammer bush is found in the mountains of Mexico , where it is known as aretillo . Although it occurs sporadically outside the Veracruz region, it is there that it is most widespread. It occurs at altitudes between 700 and 1900 meters, but mainly at altitudes around 1400 meters. Deciduous forests are preferred locations.
use
The plant is cultivated worldwide. The Mexican hammer bush found its way into European greenhouses and local horticulture in the 19th century together with the two species Cestrum fasciculatum and Cestrum roseum . There are also isolated attempts to use it medicinally. It is said to have a calming effect here.
Phylogenetics
Phylogenetic studies provide Cestrum elegans as a sister species Cestrum endlicheri .
literature
- Eckehart J. Jäger, Friedrich Ebel, Peter Hanelt, Gerd K. Müller (eds.): Rothmaler excursion flora from Germany. Volume 5: Herbaceous ornamental and useful plants . Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Berlin Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8274-0918-8 .
- Michael Nee: Flora de Veracruz: Solanaceae I . Fascículo 49 , Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones sobre Recursos Bióticos, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, 1986, pages 37-39.
- Juan Carlos Montero-Castro, Alfonso Delgado-Salinas, Efrain De Luna and Luis E. Eguiarte: Phylogenetic Analysis of Cestrum Section Habrothamnus (Solanaceae) Based on Plastid and Nuclear DNA Sequences . Systematic Botany (2006), 31 (4): pages 843-850.
Individual evidence
- ^ Cestrum elegans at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
