Sand sedge

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Sand sedge
Sand sedge (Carex arenaria)

Sand sedge ( Carex arenaria )

Systematics
Monocots
Commelinids
Order : Sweet grass (Poales)
Family : Sourgrass family (Cyperaceae)
Genre : Sedges ( Carex )
Type : Sand sedge
Scientific name
Carex arenaria
L.

The sand sedge ( Carex arenaria ) is a species of the genus of the sedge ( Carex ) within the family of the sour grass plants (Cyperaceae). As the specific epithet ( lat . Arena = sand) suggests, it thrives mainly on coasts - and inland dunes in Europe .

description

illustration
Female spikelets

Vegetative characteristics

The sand sedge is an evergreen, perennial plant that reaches heights of between 15 and 30 centimeters. Plants growing in the shade can sometimes reach a height of 1 meter. It forms long, meter-wide, mostly dead straight, creeping runners . With the help of its rhizome it can migrate 0.5 to 4 meters; the older rhizome sections die off. The rhizomes with a diameter of 2 to 3 millimeters have brown, fibrous lower leaves . The upright stems are sharp triangular and rough on top. Shadow shapes, on the other hand, often grow arching overhanging. The rigid, runny and 2 to 4 millimeters wide leaves grow stiffly upright. The leaf sheaths are brown.

Generative characteristics

The spiked inflorescence is 2 to 5 centimeters long and contains 5 to 15 spikelets . The flowers unisexual. The lower spikelets have female flowers; the central flowers are female at the base and male at the tip; the upper flowers are purely male. In the case of shadow forms, the lower spikelets are often pulled apart, otherwise close together. The pointed and yellowish husks are narrow and ovate-lanceolate. The male flowers have three stamens . The female flowers are a zweinarbigen ovary equipped. The plano-convex and at the edges wide winged fruit sacs (utriculi) are slightly longer than the husks with a length of 4 to 5 millimeters and a width of 1.8 to 2 millimeters. They are beaked beaked. Ripe ears turn brown.

The flowering period extends from May to June.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 58, 64.

ecology

Sand-sedge foothills

The sand sedge is a geophyte or hemicryptophyte . Their subterranean runners are up to 10 meters long, only 2 to 3 millimeters thick and sharp-pointed. Above-ground shoots with adventitious roots emanate from them at regular intervals. The young shoots essentially consist of clusters of narrow, runny leaves. The fine roots close to the surface enable a water supply even in dry locations. It needs a lot of moisture to germinate. Only after three months, during which the seedling must not dry out, is the rhizome strong enough to supply the plant with water from the ground. With the help of its deep adhesive roots, the sand-sedge can easily anchor itself in the loose, wind-blown sand. If it is sent over, it quickly forms new rungs. In this way, it can quickly close the vegetation gaps in the dunes. It also spreads over stolons - runners that allow plants to grow out of the ground in a straight line. In this way, the plant can "sew up" open areas in the sand like a sewing machine. The vegetative propagation through the runners predominates in the sand sedge.

In terms of flower ecology, it is a female, wind-flowering species of the "long-dust thread type" that produces plenty of pollen . In addition to wind pollination , self- pollination is also successful. The pollen from Carex species smells and is therefore probably also accepted by insects , which can also lead to insect pollination .

The fruit and diaspore (unit of distribution) of the Carex species is a small nut completely encased in an utriculus . The often beaked, two-toothed end of the utricle can be used for Velcro spreading and the air bubble enclosed between the utricle and the actual fruit - especially in all wet species - can be used for swimming spread. In the case of the sand sedge, in particular, there is also the spreading as a rain swallow and, because of the winged utriculi in the lower part, the spreading as an adhesive .

Occurrence

The sand sedge is common in northern , western and central Europe as far as Russia. In North America Carex arenaria is a neophyte . It inhabits coastal dunes from Portugal to southern Scandinavia , as well as drifting sand plains and dunes in the interior . In Central Europe, it occurs frequently in the dunes of the North and Baltic Seas and in the geest of the lowlands ; often it is also planted; otherwise it occurs only sporadically in inland Central Europe.

The sand sedge is a pioneering sandy soil and consolidates the loose sand of the dunes through its "roots". With a meter-wide creeping rhizome ("rootstock"), from which new shoots grow every 5 to 10 centimeters, it forms almost dead straight rows and is therefore commonly referred to as "soldier's sedge" or "God's sewing machine". The sand sedge thrives best on open, dry, loose, alkaline and nitrogen-poor and mostly lime-free, acidic sandy soils . She is a species of character of the order Corynephoretalia.

use

In rare cases, the sand sedge is used to strengthen the dune. The rhizome of the sand sedge was previously used as a blood purifier, diuretic and perspiration agent.

Common names

The other German-language trivial names exist or existed for the sand sedge, sometimes only regionally : Eiserpäther, Eiserpeden, Kalmuspoden, groten Pägen ( Altmark ), grot Queck ( Mecklenburg ) and Reiserwurzel ( Rendsburg pharmacy).

literature

  • Jürke Grau , Bruno P. Kremer, Bodo M. Möseler, Gerhard Rambold, Dagmar Triebel: Grasses. Sweet grasses, sour grasses, rushes and grass-like families in Europe (=  Steinbach's natural guide ). New, edit. Special edition edition. Mosaik, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-576-10702-9 .
  • 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 .
  • Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora . With the collaboration of Theo Müller. 7th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1828-7 .
  • Rainer Borcherding: The sand sedge. PDF file , accessed September 1, 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b sand sedge. In: FloraWeb.de.
  2. ↑ 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.  174 .
  3. ↑ a b c d 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 .
  4. ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Carex arenaria. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  5. ↑ a b Dietmar Aichele, Heinz-Werner Schwegler: The flowering plants of Central Europe . 2nd Edition. tape 5 : Swan flowers to duckweed plants . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-440-08048-X .
  6. ^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, p. 81 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Sand Sedge ( Carex arenaria )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files