Potash cabbage

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Potash cabbage
Kali brine (Kali turgidum)

Kali brine ( Kali turgidum )

Systematics
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Foxtail family (Amaranthaceae)
Subfamily : Salsoloideae
Tribe : Salsoleae
Genre : Potash
Type : Potash cabbage
Scientific name
Kali turgidum
( Dumort. ) Gutermann

The Kali salt herb ( Kali turgidum ), also known as Kalikraut or beach salt herb , is a species of the subfamily Salsoloideae in the foxtail family (Amaranthaceae). Due to its high proportion of alkali salts , it was used in the past to produce potash and washing soda .

description

Branch with flowers and fruits
Illustration from: Karl Axel Magnus Lindman: Pictures ur Nordens Flora

Appearance

The Kali-Salzkraut is an annual, summer annual herbaceous plant that reaches a height of 15 to 60 centimeters. The mostly prostrate, sometimes upright growing, fleshy stem is gray-green to reddish, glabrous or hairy with short bristles and loosely branched to bushy, spread out from the base.

leaves

The leaves are sessile, opposite in the lower stem area and alternately arranged in the upper stem section . The fleshy, thickened leaf blade widened at the base is simple and hairy with bristles. It is 1 to 2 inches long and between 1 and 2 millimeters wide. The shape varies from linear to awl-shaped. The translucent tip of the leaf is clearly spiky. The leaf margin is whole and transparent.

Inflorescence, flower and fruit

One to three flowers each sit in the axilla of a spiky bract over two long and thorny pointed bracts . The bracts are the perianth grown.

The hermaphrodite flowers are inconspicuously greenish (rarely reddish). The simple flower cover consists of a circle of five unequal wide, pointed-egg-shaped tepals , which have a transverse keel on their back. There are five stamens in front of the tepals . The upper ovary bears two thread-like scars. The Kali salt herb blooms from July to September.

The fruits, nuts , remain enclosed by the flower envelope. Short, tough, almost opaque wings without clearly visible nerves grow from the transverse keel of the perigone lobes. The sturdy Tepalenzipfel incline rigidly upright over the fruit due to the strong emergent, upwardly thorny pointed central rib.

Chromosome number

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 36.

ecology

The potash salt herb follows the C 4 path of photosynthesis.

According to Kugler , the flowers of the Kali salt herb correspond to the wind-flowered of the immobile type. Fixed, immobile flowers and stiff stamens are characteristic of this .

The kali brine does not offer nectar. Pollination mostly takes place via the wind ( anemogamy ), but often also by self-pollination and by insects. Typical pollinators include short-nosed bees, syrphids, beetles and flies.

The units of distribution are the nuts, which are firmly surrounded and crowned by the flower envelope. Up to 250,000 fruits can be produced per plant. The plants break off at a predetermined breaking point close to the ground in autumn and, together with the fruits, are rolled over the ground by strong winds as "floor runners" and "steppe rollers". It is known from America that in this way structures are created that can reach the size of a small car. Over time, the fruit will fall out. In addition, the fruits spread as step-like and sticky and through the wind as wing-fliers and as water-like; there is also spreading through humans. The fruits are warming germs.

Toxicity

All parts of the plant are poisonous. The main active ingredients are the tertrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids salsolin and salsolidine , which are present as a racemic mixture. You can also find oxalic acid and sodium oxalate .

Salsolin is similar to papaverine in its effect on the blood vessels and to hydrastinine in its effect on the smooth muscles of the uterus . According to Krylov et al. Salsolin and especially salsolodin have a vasodilatory effect. At higher doses there is a sharp decrease in blood pressure. Both active ingredients stimulate breathing, but with higher doses cardiac arrhythmias occur after 10 to 15 minutes.

Occurrence

Potash cabbage on the Heligoland dune

The potash salt herb occurs naturally in Europe on the coasts of the Baltic Sea , North Sea and Atlantic , for example in Northern Europe in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway, in Central Europe in Germany and the Netherlands, in Eastern Europe in Poland, the Baltic States and Russia, in Western and Southern Europe in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

The potash herb thrives in salty, sandy coastal locations, for example in flush fringes and on dunes . It is a character species of the Salsolo-Honkenyion peploidis association. In contrast, finds in the Mediterranean and inland areas are mostly Ruthenian saltweed ( Kali tragus ), which is also competitive in locations that are not influenced by salt. Statements of neophytic occurrences in North America are not supported by herbarium evidence.

In Germany, the potash salt herb is not endangered nationwide. In Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, however, it is considered endangered ( Red List of Endangered Species 3).

Systematics

The first publication of this species took place in 1753 under the name Salsola kali by Carl von Linné in Species Plantarum . Under this name, this species belonged to the genus Salsola L. s for a long time . l. and was there sect of the Salsola section . Kali Dumort. added.

After Salsola was divided into the tribe Salsoleae sl based on molecular genetic studies, this species was placed in the genus Kali Mill. In 2007 . The valid name of the Kali salt herb in this genus is Kali turgidum (Dumort.) Guterm. ( Basionym : Salsola turgida Dumort. , Fl.Belgica 23, 1827). The name Kali soda Moench , which was initially used, turned out to be invalid, as it was already an older, priority homonym Kali soda Scop. existed (which is a synonym of Salsola soda ). The genus Kali belongs to the Salsoleae s tribe. st.

Together with Kali tragus and other closely related species, the Kali salt herb forms the Kali tragus aggregate ( Salsola kali aggregate). Some authors also regard these clans as subspecies of Salsola kali , so Kali turgidum only corresponds to the subspecies Salsola kali subsp. kali . In the genus Kali , the name priority changes to the name Kali tragus , to which Kali turgidum should be assigned as a subspecies.

use

The potash herb contains a high proportion of alkali salts from sodium and potassium . In the past, potash and washing soda were obtained from parts of plants . To do this, the plant was harvested, dried and burned. The brine that dripped out was collected in a pit and used to make soap and glass.

Young leaves can be picked and used as a salad or vegetable.

Fresh pressed juice from the salted potash used to be considered a diuretic in folk medicine.

proof

literature

  • Henning Haeupler, Thomas Muer: picture atlas of the fern and flowering plants of Germany . Ed .: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (=  The fern and flowering plants of Germany . Volume 2 ). Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2000, ISBN 3-8001-3364-4 , pp. 96 . (Section description).
  • Klaus Becker, Stefan John: Color atlas useful plants in Central Europe. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-8001-4134-5 (use section).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Werner Rothmaler (greeting), Eckehart J. Jäger, Klaus Werner (ed.): Exkursionsflora von Deutschland. 2. Vascular plants: baseline. 18th edition, Spektrum, Heidelberg et al. 2002, ISBN 3-8274-1359-1 , pp. 177ff.
  2. ↑ a b Entry at BiolFlor .
  3. ↑ a b c 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 , p. 691-692 .
  4. ↑ Hans Kugler: Flower ecology. 2., completely reworked. u. exp. Ed., Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart 1970, XI + 345 p. (Quoted from Düll & Kutzelnigg 2011).
  5. ↑ a b Kali salt herb. In: FloraWeb.de.
  6. ↑ a b Lutz Roth , Max Daunderer , Kurt Kormann : Toxic Plants - Plant Poisons. Poisonous plants from AZ. Emergency assistance. Occurrence. Effect. Therapy. Allergic and phototoxic reactions . 4th edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-933203-31-7 (reprint from 1994).
  7. ↑ a b Pertti Uotila, 2011: Chenopodiaceae (pro parte majore): Salsola kali - In: Euro + Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity.
  8. ^ 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.  351 .
  9. ^ Sabrina Rilke: Revision of the section Salsola sl of the genus Salsola (Chenopodiaceae) . In: Bibliotheca Botanica. Volume 149, 1999, ISBN 978-3-510-48020-3 (abstract online) .
  10. ↑ Carl von Linné: Species Plantarum. Volume 1, Impensis Laurentii Salvii, Holmiae 1753, p. 222 digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.biodiversitylibrary.org%2Fpage%2F358241~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided%3D~LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D
  11. ^ A b Hossein Akhani, Gerald Edwards, Eric H. Roalson: Diversification Of The Old World Salsoleae sl (Chenopodiaceae): Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis Of Nuclear And Chloroplast Data Sets And A Revised Classification. In: International Journal of Plant Sciences. Volume 168, No. 6, 2007, pp. 931-956.
  12. ^ Kali turgidum , International Plant Names Index , (specific epithet in neuter), accessed January 15, 2016.
  13. ↑ a b Walter Gutermann: Notulae nomenclaturales 41-45. New names at Cruciata and Kali and some minor corrections. In: Phyton (horn). Volume 51, No. 1, 2011, p. 98.

Web links

Commons : Kali-Salzkraut ( Salsola kali )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files