Red-brown candlestick flower
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Red-brown candlestick ( Ceropegia fusca ), inflorescence with flowers. |
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The red-brown candlestick flower ( Ceropegia fusca ) is a species of the genus candlestick flowers ( Ceropegia ) from the subfamily of the silk plants (Asclepiadoideae), which is assigned to the dog poison family (Apocynaceae). This species is endemic to the Canaries .
features
The red-brown candlestick flower is a shrub-like, perennial succulent plant that reaches heights of up to 1 meter. This kind has a mostly upright, z. Sometimes also lying, ascending habit with regular, basal branches. It is characterized by a shoot and leaf succulence . The stems measure 8 to 15 mm in diameter and are initially red-brown-green when fresh; they later turn whitish-gray due to wax deposits. The 25 to 50 mm long, 2 to 4 mm wide linear-elliptical leaflets are opposite and have a red-brown hue. The nerves are a little lighter, the edges bent. They develop on the fresh stems and later fall off.
In the upper area of the plants, sessile, shingled inflorescences with groups of two to eight flowers develop . On Gran Canaria there are local forms that have sham umbels of up to 20 flowers. The hermaphroditic, red-brown flowers are typical window flowers that are 2 to 3 cm long. The corolla tube is 10 to 16 mm long. The crown cup measures 4 to 6 mm in diameter and is only slightly wider than the crown tube. The five corolla lobes are 6 to 11 mm long and 1 to 3 mm wide. The edges are slightly curved outwards.
Paired, spindle-shaped follicles are formed that are up to 10 cm long.
Occurrence
The red-brown candlestick flower is restricted to the Canary Islands of La Palma , Gran Canaria and Tenerife . It prefers the drier locations on the south side of these islands. They bloom there from around November until spring.
Systematics
The red-brown candlestick flower is closely related to the other Canarian Ceropegia species, Ceropegia dichotoma . However, this has yellowish flowers and is limited to the slightly more humid locations on the north side of the islands.
literature
- Focke Albers, Ulli Meve (Hrsg.): Succulent lexicon Volume 3 Asclepiadaceae (silk plants). 322 p., Ulmer, Stuttgart 2002 ISBN 978-3-8001-3982-8 .
- Peter Schönfelder, Ingrid Schönfelder: The cosmos of the Canary Islands. 2nd edition, 319 pages, Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG Stuttgart ISBN 978-3-440-10750-8 .
