Swiss sea ravages
| Swiss sea ravages | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Swiss sea puff ( Ephedra helvetica ), herbal specimen |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ephedra helvetica | ||||||||||||
| CAMey. |
The Swiss sea puff or Swiss sea puff ( Ephedra helvetica ) is a species of plant from the genus of sea puff ( ephedra ) that only occurs in the Alps .
description
The Swiss sea bark is a perennial dwarf shrub ( Chamaephyte ) and reaches heights of 10 to 25 cm. The branches are gray-green, round, finely furrowed and papilose . They arise from a woody, creeping rhizome . Foliage leaves are not formed. There are opposite, about 2 to 3 mm long scale leaves, which are often fused with each other up to the middle and are brownish to white in color.
Like all representatives of the genus, the species is dioecious ( diocesan ). The entire inflorescence is racemose , with the partial inflorescences arranged in whorls . The female inflorescences are greenish, consist of two flowers and are surrounded by pairs of scaly bracts ; they stand alone or in pairs on the tip of short branches. The male inflorescences are sessile or short-stalked and consist of 8 to 16 yellow flowers, which are arranged in spikes. Flowering time is April and May. The seed head is bright red, berry-like and has a diameter of 6 to 7 mm.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 28.
ingredients
Like almost all members of the genus, the Swiss sea puff contains the active ingredient ephedrine .
Occurrence
The Swiss sea riot is limited to the Alps. In Switzerland there are deposits in the Valais . It also occurs in South Tyrol , the Aosta Valley and the French Alps.
The locations are dry, warm rock corridors of the colline to submontane altitude range . It occurs mainly in the inner alpine rock steppes (Stipo-Poion) plant community .
The Swiss botanist Heinrich Zoller describes the growing areas in Valais as follows: The occurrence is strictly bound to the most extreme and warmest places. In central Valais, the species is only able to thrive in initial, open stands of steep, south-facing rocky slopes, where, thanks to its foothills, it can also form larger, almost pure stands in the Ephedro-Artemisetum vallesiacae. There are only relatively few plant species on the steep slopes, including Allium sphaerocephalon , Artemisia maritima subsp. vallesiaca , Hyssopus officinalis , Koeleria vallesiana , Onosma tauricum subsp. helveticum , Scorzonera austriaca , Stipa capillata ; the vegetation can hardly cover half of the bare skeletal soil. The narrow living area was a place where the light-needing steppe vegetation survived. In Switzerland, the species is classified as vulnerable and is protected by Appendix 2 of the Ordinance on Nature Conservation and Heritage Protection of the Federal Council.
Systematics
Ephedra helvetica was first described by Carl Anton von Meyer in 1846 . As a result, the Alpine clans with elongated and spirally twisted micropylar tubes were separated from the widespread species Ephedra distachya .
The position of the Swiss sea pigeon as an independent species and the taxonomic delimitation of the species are not assessed uniformly. The clan is often referred to as the subspecies Ephedra distachya L. subsp. helvetica (CA Mey.) Asch. & Graebn. rated. The clans occurring in Vinschgau were, however, assigned to Ephedra distachya for a long time , while those in Valais were regarded as Ephedra helvetica , for example in the "Flora of Switzerland". In the 1990s, the alpine ephedra populations were divided into the small species Ephedra helvetica s. str., Ephedra negrii Nouviant (Syn .: Ephedra helvetica f. gracilis G. Negri ) and Ephedra dubia , all of which were found in the Vinschgau. Molecular genetic studies have shown, however, that although the Alpine populations are clearly separated from Ephedra distachya , they are too closely related to one another to make a division into individual species or subspecies seem meaningful.
supporting documents
- Karl Oswald, Thomas Wilhalm: Meerträubel, Meerträubchen / Ephedra. In: Manfred A. Fischer, Karl Oswald, Wolfgang Adler: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol . 3rd, improved edition. Province of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9 , p. 258-259 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Tropicos. [1]
- ↑ David Aeschimann, Konrad Lauber, Daniel Martin Moser, Jean-Paul Theurillat: Flora Alpina. An atlas of all 4500 vascular plants in the Alps . Volume 1, Paul Haupt, Bern / Stuttgart / Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-258-06600-0 , p. 112.
- ^ A b Heinrich Zoller : Family Ephedraceae. In: Friedrich Markgraf (Hrsg.): Illustrated flora of Central Europe. Pteridophyta, Spermatophyta . Founded by Gustav Hegi. 3rd, completely revised edition. Volume I. Part 2: Gymnospermae, Angiospermae: Monocotyledoneae 1 (Alismataceae - Scheuchzeriaceae) . Paul Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-489-51020-8 , pp. 143-148 .
- ^ Ephedra helvetica. In: Info Flora (the national data and information center for the Swiss flora) , accessed on May 17, 2015.
- ^ EJPD. "List of Protected Plants" , accessed November 24, 2008.
- ↑ Carl Anton von Meyer: Attempt a monograph of the genus Ephedra. Explained by illustrations. Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg 1846, p. 84, digitized version , illustration (panel VIII, Fig. X, top left) .
- ↑ Paul Ascherson, Paul Gräbner: Synopsis of the Central European Flora. First volume, Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1897, p. 260, 8 digitized .
- ↑ a b Nobuko Kakiuchi, Masayuki Mikage, Stefanie Ickert-Bond, Maria Maier-Stolte , Helmut Friday: A molecular phylogenetic study of the Ephedra distachya / E. sinica complex in Eurasia. In: Willdenowia. Volume 41, No. 2, 2011, pp. 203-215, DOI: 10.3372 / wi.41.41201 .
- ↑ Hans Ernst Hess, Elias Landolt, Rosemarie Hirzel: Key to the flora of Switzerland and adjacent areas (with the assistance of Matthias Baltisberger). 3rd revised edition. Birkhäuser, Basel / Boston / Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-7643-2606-9 , p. 19, limited preview in the Google book search.
- ↑ Jacques Nouviant: Recherches sur ephedra en Europe III: entre Ephedra distachya et helvetica. In: Bulletin de la Murithienne. Volume 115, 1997, pp. 68-75 (PDF file) .
- ↑ Jacques Nouviant: Recherches sur ephedra en Europe V: typification de Ephedra monostachya et clé de Determination of Ephedra européens. In: Bulletin de la Murithienne. Volume 116, 1998, pp. 81-90 (PDF file) .
- ↑ a b Thomas Wilhalm: Current inventory of sea robbers (Ephedra helvetica, Ephedraceae, Gnetales) in South Tyrol. In: Gredleriana. Volume 7, 2007, pp. 69-90 (PDF file) .