Sweden clover

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sweden clover
Sweden clover (Trifolium hybridum)

Sweden clover ( Trifolium hybridum )

Systematics
Family : Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily : Butterflies (Faboideae)
Tribe : Trifolieae
Genre : Clover ( trifolium )
Section : Lotoidea
Type : Sweden clover
Scientific name
Trifolium hybridum
L.

The Swedish clover ( Trifolium hybridum ), also called bastard clover , is a species of plant from the genus Klee ( Trifolium ). It is widespread from the Canary Islands across Europe to West Asia .

description

Illustration from Flora Batava , Volume 18, 1889
Stalked, three-part leaves and stipules
Stem with petiole and stipules
inflorescence
Inflorescence with stalked flowers (front flowers removed)
blossom
Seeds

Appearance and leaf

Sweden clover is a deciduous, perennial , herbaceous plant that reaches heights of between 10 and 70 centimeters. The erect or ascending stems are glabrous or almost glabrous and become completely glabrous during senescence . They are heavily branched, rarely almost unbranched. Often the plants stand individually, sometimes in clumps together.

The alternate arranged on the stems leaves are divided into petiole and leaf blade. The leaf stalk is up to 1 centimeter long. The leaf blade is pinnate in three parts. The 1 mm long stalked leaflets are 1 and 3 centimeters long and 1 to 1.8 centimeters wide and are obovate, rarely rhombic, with a short wedge-shaped base. The leaf margins are whole or finely serrated to serrated, the tip is edged or, conversely, heart-shaped.

The smooth stipules are 1 to 2.5 centimeters long and over 5 millimeters wide and obovate to lanceolate. The stipules are fused with the petioles over a third of their length. The free part tapers and is pointed or sharply pointed (awl-shaped), it is more or less cuticle-like.

Inflorescence and flower

The flowering period extends from May to September. The lateral, spherical, head-like inflorescences have a diameter of 1 to 2.5 centimeters and contain at least 10 (mostly 30 to 50) butterfly flowers . The inflorescence axes are weak and longer than the opposite leaves and slightly increasingly hairy towards the head . The bracts are about 1 millimeter long and lanceolate. The flower stalks are up to 4 to 5 millimeters long and bent back after the anthesis .

The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The five sepals are fused Roehrig. The calyx is up to 4 millimeters long, it is almost bare and becomes completely bare during senescence. The white calyx-tube is cuticle-like with five distinct and five inconspicuous ribs. The calyx teeth are unequal and one or two times longer than the calyx tube. The green-red calyx teeth are lanceolate or awl-shaped, with wide incisions between them. The crown is 0.7 to 1 centimeter high and has the typical shape of the butterfly flower . The petals, which are white when they open up and later pink or flesh-colored, are elongated ovoid and finely serrated in the upper half. Nine of the ten stamens have grown together. The single green, upper carpel is about 2.2 mm long and contains one to twelve ovules . The stylus is about 2.5 millimeters long.

Fruit and seeds

The stalked, smooth legume is elongated with a length of about 7 millimeters and a width of 2 millimeters, protrudes only slightly from the calyx and contains two to four seeds. The reddish seeds are egg-shaped with small tubercles . The seed weight corresponds to about one kilogram per 500,000 seeds.

Chromosome set

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 16.

ecology

The Swedish clover is a mesomorphic hemicryptophyte . It is rooted up to 50 centimeters deep.

The Swedish clover is self-sterile and is mainly pollinated by honey bees. Its nectar contains 43 percent sugar , but each blossom produces an average of 0.011 milligrams of sugar in 24 hours.

The diaspores spread by the wind or Velcro.

Occurrence

The Swedish clover is widespread from the Canary Islands across Europe to Western Asia . Today's area of the Swedish clover extends from France , Italy and Greece in the south to Ireland and Scandinavia in the north; eastward it extends to Kazakhstan , to the Caucasus and to Anatolia . The Swedish clover is originally found in Northern and Western Europe. It has been cultivated in Sweden and France since the 18th century.

The distribution area of ​​the Swedish clover extends in the west up to and including the whole of Portugal and in the south up to 42 ° north latitude, which corresponds approximately to the height of Rome and Skopje. In the north, in Scandinavia, it extends up to 60 ° north latitude, which corresponds approximately to the height of Oslo. However, individual locations are also further north. To the east the distribution area extends to the Caucasus and further north to about Moscow. The Swedish clover is widespread throughout Germany. It is absent in smaller areas, especially in the Central European lowlands ; otherwise it occurs scattered in Central Europe .

In the USA , Trifolium hybridum is a neophyte ; there the Swedish clover is found on the east coast, from north to south the range extends there from New York to South Carolina, in the west it extends to Ohio; individual locations can also be found significantly further west.

The Swedish clover thrives best on loamy , sandy-loamy or clayey soils , which can be poor or rich in humus, but should be more nutrient-rich than nutrient-poor and predominantly moist.

In Central Europe it mainly settles in gappy locations in fat meadows and pastures, but also on fallow land, on roadsides and on embankments. He barely rises above 1000 meters in the mountains. In the Allgäu Alps, it temporarily climbed to an altitude of 1950 meters on green areas in Vorarlberg near the mountain station of the Kanzelwand cable car . It grows in societies of the associations Agropyro-Rumicion, Calthion or the order Arrhenatheretalia.

Systematics

Trifolium hybridum was first published by Carl von Linné . The scientific name Trifolium hybridum and the common name bastard clover are misleading insofar as it was believed that this taxon was a hybrid of Trifolium pratense and Trifolium repens .

Three varieties are accepted for Trifolium hybridum :

  • Trifolium hybridum var. Anatolicum (Boiss.) Boiss. (Syn .: Trifolium hybridum subsp. Anatolicum (Boiss.) M. Hossain ): It has a tuft-like habit and the stem is branched at the base; Inflorescences rather small (<2 cm in diameter).
  • Trifolium hybridum var. Elegans (Savi) Boiss. (Syn .: Trifolium hybridum subsp. Elegans (Savi) Asch. & Graebn. ): Stem axis prostrate to ascending. Widely branched. Inflorescences rather small (<2 cm diameter)
  • Trifolium hybridum L. var. Hybridum (Syn .: Trifolium hybridum L. subsp. Hybridum ): stem axes hollow and upright. Inflorescences large (~ 2.5 cm in diameter).

use

Sweden Clover is mixed with other clover species grown for food production and has a feed importance. It is very rich in protein and can be used both as green fodder and for silage . In Europe, higher-yielding tetraploid forms with 32 chromosomes were bred. It can be cut up to three times a year and achieves up to 5.6 tons per hectare with the first cut and between 4.5 and 5.5 tons per hectare with the other cuts.

Schwedenklee is also edible for humans. Leaves and inflorescences can be eaten raw or cooked. A tasty tea can be prepared from the dried inflorescences, which is supposed to increase the flow of milk during breastfeeding.

swell

literature

  • Michael Zohary, David Heller: The Genus Trifolium . The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem 1984, ISBN 965-208-056-X , pp. 145-148 .

Individual evidence

Most of the information in this article has been taken from the sources given under literature; the following sources are also cited:

  1. ↑ a b c d Trifolium hybridum L., Schweden-Klee. In: FloraWeb.de.
  2. ↑ a b c 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.  593 .
  3. ↑ Helmut Horn, Cord Lüllmann: The great honey book. Kosmos, Stuttgart 3rd edition 2006, p. 30. ISBN 3-440-10838-4
  4. ↑ a b Oskar Sebald, Siegmund Seybold, Georg Philippi (ed.): The fern and flowering plants of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 3: Special part (Spermatophyta, subclass Rosidae): Droseraceae to Fabaceae. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8001-3314-8 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Dietmar Aichele, Heinz-Werner Schwegler: The flowering plants of Central Europe . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : Yew family to butterfly family . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-440-08048-X .
  6. ↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 2, IHW, Eching 2004, ISBN 3-930167-61-1 , p. 129.
  7. ↑ Trifolium hybridum var. Elegans (Savi) Döll, Niederliegender Schweden-Klee. In: FloraWeb.de.
  8. ↑ John Frame: Trifolium hybridum L. In: Grassland and Pasture / Crop Systems. FAO Crop and Grassland Service, accessed May 23, 2008 .
  9. ^ Trifolium hybridum at Plants For A Future . Retrieved May 23, 2008.

Web links

Commons : Swedish clover ( Trifolium hybridum )  - album with pictures, videos and audio files