Mountain Sorrel

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Mountain Sorrel
Mountain Sorrel

Mountain Sorrel

Systematics
Nuclear eudicotyledons
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Knotweed family (Polygonaceae)
Genre : Dock ( Rumex )
Subgenus : Acetosa
Type : Mountain Sorrel
Scientific name
Rumex alpestris
Jacq.
Illustration from Thomé: Flora of Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Mountain sorrel ( Rumex alpestris )

The mountain sorrel or mountain sorrel ( Rumex alpestris Jacq. , Syn . : Rumex arifolius All. ) Is a Eurasian dock species that can only be found in the mountains in Europe . It is very similar to the common sorrel ( Rumex acetosa ).

description

It is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches heights of between 30 cm and 100 cm. The leaves are ovoid or oval in outline and about two to three times as long as they are wide. At the bottom they are clearly heart-shaped. While the basal leaves are long stalked, the stem leaves are more or less sessile, and the leaf base includes the stem.

In contrast to the common sorrel , the ochrea has entire margins, in older leaves it is also partially torn, but not frayed and torn.

It is a dioecious separate-sex plant ( monoecious ). The inflorescence is usually just simply branched. The heart-shaped whole- edged blades are 3.5 to 4.4 mm long, less wide and whole-edged. The flowering time is between June and August, depending on the location.

The number of chromosomes of the species is 2n = 14 in female plants and 2n = 15 in males.

ecology

The 2.5–3 mm long, gray-yellow, matt nuts with their blades are subject to the spread of wind as rotary fliers. In addition, digestive and random spread occurs through grazing animals, e.g. B. by chamois.

The fruit ripening begins in July.

Distribution and location requirements

The mountain sorrel occurs in the temperate and cool areas of Eurasia (Western Europe to Japan ). In Western and Central Europe, however, it is only found in the mountains. In the Allgäu Alps, it rises between Kreuzecksattel and Kreuzeck in Bavaria up to 2320 m above sea level.

It grows there in beech forests of the high altitudes as well as on nutrient-rich and moist meadows or pastures of the high altitudes. It occurs mainly in the Aceri-Fagetum, in the Alnetum viridis and in the Cicerbitetum alpinae. He is an Adenostyletalia order character.

Notes on the system

There are a number of synonyms for the mountain sorrel, of which Rumex arifoliu is only the most common in Europe. Other important synonyms are, for example, Rumex montanus Desf. or Rumex amplexicaulis Lapeyr.

The common sorrel and the meadow sorrel ( Rumex acetosa ) share a number of identical characteristics. It can be difficult to differentiate between plants that grow in the mountains. In general, the common sorrel has somewhat thicker leaves, the stem leaves are somewhat narrower, the ochrea is frayed or at least toothed, and the valves are somewhat smaller, while the nut fruits are somewhat larger.

Because of the similarity, the common sorrel is also often regarded as a subspecies of the meadow sorrel ( Rumex acetosa subsp. Alpestris (Scop.) Á.Löve and other names).

Sources and further information

literature

  • Henning Haeupler , Thomas Muer: picture atlas of the fern and flowering plants of Germany (= the fern and flowering plants of Germany. Volume 2). Published by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-8001-3364-4 .
  • Werner Rothmaler : Excursion flora for the areas of the GDR and the FRG . Volume 2: Vascular Plants. 14th edition. People and knowledge, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-060-12539-2
  • Hayashi Yasaka: Nihon-no Yasou. Yama to Keikoku Sha, Tokyo 1983, ISBN 4-635-09016-7
  • Ruprecht Düll , Herfried Kutzelnigg : Pocket dictionary of plants in Germany and neighboring countries. The most common Central European species in portrait. 7th, corrected and enlarged edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-494-01424-1 .
  • Oskar Sebald, Siegmund Seybold, Georg Philippi (Hrsg.): The fern and flowering plants of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 1: General Part, Special Part (Pteridophyta, Spermatophyta): Lycopodiaceae to Plumbaginaceae. 2nd, supplemented edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3322-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Stuttgart, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 2001. ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 332
  2. ↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 1, IHW, Eching 2001, ISBN 3-930167-50-6 , p. 445.

Web links

Commons : Mountain Sorrel ( Rumex alpestris )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files