Useful snowball

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Useful snowball
Useful snowball (Viburnum utile)

Useful snowball ( Viburnum utile )

Systematics
Asterids
Euasterids II
Order : Cardigans (Dipsacales)
Family : Musk herb family (Adoxaceae)
Genre : Snowball ( viburnum )
Type : Useful snowball
Scientific name
Viburnum utile
Hemsl.

The useful viburnum ( Viburnum utile ) is a species of plant in the musk herb family (Adoxaceae). His home is China .

description

Appearance and leaf

Useful snowball ( Viburnum utile ), inflorescences

The useful snowball grows as an evergreen shrub with heights of up to two meters. The bark of the twigs in the first year is yellowish-brown or greyish-white and tomentose with balding star hairs ; the bark of the branches of the previous year is round, reddish-brown, glabrous and has scattered small and rounded cork pores .

The opposite constantly arranged, structured in petiole and leaf blade leaves stand up on the tips of the branches in tufts. The strong leaf stalk is 5 to 10 (rarely up to 15 millimeters) long, green and has gray or yellow-white star hairs. The simple, leathery leaf blade is ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate with a length of 2 to 5 (rarely up to 8 centimeters) and a width of up to 1 to 2.5 (rarely up to 3.5 centimeters) . The leaf surface is greenish white when young and changes color to a strong, shiny green on the bare underside of the leaf or a dark green on the sparsely star-haired top of the leaf. The base of the blades is rounded or narrowed; there are no glands . The leaf margin is whole or rarely indistinctly serrated and slightly curled up. The tip of the spade is rounded to slightly blunt and sometimes edged. There is pinnate nerve with five to six lateral nerves. The leaf veins on the underside sometimes have rust-colored star hairs. The midrib is raised on the underside of the leaf; the convex side ribs, which are network-veined near the leaf margin, are slightly raised on the underside and only slightly to indistinctly raised on the upper side of the leaf. Its right-angled branches are indistinctly visible on both sides of the leaf. The scaly winter buds are yellowish-brown or greyish-white and tomentose with star hair. There are no stipules .

Inflorescence and flower

Useful viburnum (
Viburnum utile ), flowers

The flowering period begins after the new leaves have formed and lasts from March to April. The strong, terminal inflorescence stem is 1 to 3 centimeters long. stand together in compound, trugdoldigen zymous total inflorescences with a diameter of 5 to 7 centimeters. The primary branching of the inflorescence has five whorled rays that are densely tomentose with gray or yellow-whitish star hairs. There are no sterile and enlarged marginal flowers. The leaf-like and green bracts , which fall off early, are linear to linear-lanceolate and have downy hairs with star hairs. The cover sheets are linear. The sedentary and unscented flowers are usually located on the "rays" of the second and third order.

The small, hermaphrodite flowers are radially symmetrical and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The five green sepals have grown together to form a tubular, bare calyx tube, about 2 millimeters long. It ends in five very small, 0.5 to 1 millimeter short, egg-shaped-triangular calyx tips, which are either bald or ciliate with little star hair. The tip is blunt and weakly ciliate. The five bare petals are fused into a 2 to 3 millimeter long corolla tube. The five with a length of about 2 millimeters circular-ovoid corolla lobes with a rounded tip and smooth edge are spread out to a wheel-shaped crown with a diameter of 6 to 7 millimeters. The color of the petals is white and reddish when budding. There is only one circle with five fertile stamens inserted at the base of the corolla tube , which almost reach the height of the corolla lobes. The stamens measure about 4 millimeters; the almost spherical anthers are yellow and about 1 millimeter in size. The pen is about as long as the calyx teeth and ending in a capitate stigma .

Fruit and seeds

The fruits ripen in August and initially turn red and turn black until they are ripe . The solitary, bare stone fruit is elongated elliptical to elliptical with a rounded base and tip with a length of (rarely 6) 7 to 8 millimeters. With a length of (rarely 5) to 7 millimeters and a width of (rarely 4) to 5 millimeters, the elliptical or obovate seeds have two furrows on the back and three furrows on the belly and a rounded upper end.

Chromosome number

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 18.

distribution

The useful snowball is native to the central Chinese provinces of Guizhou in the northeast, Henan , western Hubei , Hunan , southwest Shaanxi, and Sichuan . It colonizes forest edges and thickets at altitudes of 500 to 1800 meters.

Systematics

Viburnum utile was in 1888 by William Hemsley in the Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany , Volume 23, Number 155, page 356, first described . Synonyms for Viburnum utile are Viburnum bockii Graebn. , Viburnum fallax Graebn. , Viburnum utile var. Minus Pamp. and Viburnum utile var. ningqiangense Y.Ren & WZDi .

swell

literature

  • Qiner Yang, Valéry Malécot: Adoxaceae In Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Eds.): Flora of China . Volume 19: Cucurbitaceae through Valerianaceae, with Annonaceae and Berberidaceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 2011, ISBN 978-1-935641-04-9 , pp. 581 (English). Viburnum utile Online (section description, distribution and systematics - text identical to the printed work)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Botting Hemsley: Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany . tape 23 , no. 155 . London 1888, p. 856 ( First online publication of Viburnum utile scanned at Biodiversity Heritage Library ).

Web links

Commons : Useful Snowball ( Viburnum utile )  - album with pictures, videos and audio files