Adderhead worm lettuce

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Adderhead bitter herb
Adderhead bitter herb (Helminthotheca echioides)

Adderhead bitter herb ( Helminthotheca echioides )

Systematics
Euasterids II
Order : Astern-like (Asterales)
Family : Daisy family (Asteraceae)
Subfamily : Cichorioideae
Genre : Helminthotheca
Type : Adderhead bitter herb
Scientific name
Helminthotheca echioides
( L. ) Holub

The Adderhead bitter herb ( Helminthotheca echioides (L.) Holub ; Syn .: Picris echioides L. ), also called worm lettuce , is a species of the sunflower family (Asteraceae). This species was previously included in the genus bitter herbs ( Picris ), but is now part of the genus Helminthotheca . It is a neophyte that is spreading in Central Europe .

description

When Natternkopf bitter herb is an annual , herbaceous plant that reaches usually stature heights between 30 and 80 cm. The upright, branchy stem is hairy with bristles. The lower foliage leaves are ovate-oblong, toothed and narrowed in the stem, the upper ones are rather oblong-lanceolate, serrated and somewhat encompassing the stem. The leaves have bristle hairs that grow on small white pustules, some of which are barbed.

The flower heads sit at the top of the branches. All bracts are awned with stiff bristles. The strikingly large, wide, egg to heart-shaped outer bracts are almost as long as the inner ones, but they are much narrower. The flower baskets contain only yellow ray-florets, the marginal ones are often purple on the outside.

The long-beaked achenes , which have a feathery pappus , grow straight in the inner part of the cup, while the outer ones are curved.

The worm lettuce flowers mainly in the months of June to August.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 10.

Location and distribution

The species grows in weed communities, on banks, in fields, on dams and between rubble. The adder's head bitter herb is often found on roadsides and roadsides. It occurs mostly in societies of the associations Sisymbrion or Agropyro-Rumicion.

The original home of worm lettuce is the Mediterranean region. The entire distribution area extends from North Africa and the Canary Islands to Crimea, Turkey and Iran. The species is also found as a neophyte in Australia and North and South America .

In Germany the species is very dispersed, especially in the central and southern part. However, it is spreading. In Austria and Switzerland, the bitter herb is rare and mostly inconsistent in the entire area.

Through regular spreading of the seeds, the species can also assert itself outside the Mediterranean area, whereby in Western and Central Europe one can speak of a permanent naturalization.

  • Adderhead bitter herb on site
  • Flower head
  • inflorescence
  • Foliage leaf
  • Stalk

  • The basket shell is covered with anchor-shaped hair.

  • Cut open basket

  • The fruits are twofold: the inner ones (below) are very small, the marginal ones (above) are larger, curved and with a hairy belly side.

Medicinal plant

The worm lettuce was often grown as a remedy against worm infestation (name). This practice is still sometimes found in the Mediterranean region today, with lettuce also being consumed as a wild vegetable.

literature

  • Oskar Sebald, Siegmund Seybold, Georg Philippi (Hrsg.): The fern and flowering plants of Baden-Württemberg . 2nd, supplemented edition. tape 1 : General Part, Special Part (Pteridophyta, Spermatophyta): Lycopodiaceae to Plumbaginaceae . Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3322-9 .
  • Wolfgang Adler, Karl Oswald, Raimund Fischer: Excursion flora of Austria . Ed .: Manfred A. Fischer. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-8001-3461-6 .
  • Christian Heitz: School and excursion flora for Switzerland. Taking into account the border areas. Identification book for wild growing vascular plants . Founded by August Binz. 18th completely revised and expanded edition. Schwabe & Co., Basel 1986, ISBN 3-7965-0832-4 .
  • Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora . With the collaboration of Theo Müller. 6th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1990, ISBN 3-8001-3454-3 .
  • Konrad von Weihe (ed.): Illustrated flora. Germany and neighboring areas. Vascular cryptogams and flowering plants . Founded by August Garcke. 23rd edition. Paul Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1972, ISBN 3-489-68034-0 .
  • Werner Greuter, Eckhard von Raab-Straube (eds.): Med-Checklist. A critical inventory of vascular plants of the circum-Mediterranean countries . Vol. 2: Dicotyledones (Compositae) . Organization for the Phyto-Taxonomic Investigation of the Mediterranean Area (OPTIMA), Genève 2008, ISBN 978-2-8279-0011-4 , pp. 240 .
  • Werner Greuter : Compositae (pro parte majore): Helminthotheca echioides . In: Werner Greuter, Eckhard von Raab-Straube (ed.): Compositae. Euro + Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. Berlin 2006–2009.
  • Walter Erhardt, Erich Götz, Nils Bödeker, Siegmund Seybold: The Great Zander. Encyclopedia of Plant Names. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5406-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp.  981 .
  2. ↑ a b Helminthotheca in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved April 8, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Adderhead bitter herb ( Helminthotheca echioides )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files