Smelly hellebore

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Smelly hellebore
Smelly hellebore (Helleborus foetidus)

Smelly hellebore ( Helleborus foetidus )

Systematics
Order : Buttercups (Ranunculales)
Family : Buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae)
Subfamily : Ranunculoideae
Tribe : Helleboreae
Genre : Nieswurz ( Helleborus )
Type : Smelly hellebore
Scientific name
Helleborus foetidus
L.
View of the young flower
Older flowers with a dark red border and a young, green flower on the same plant
Habit in April
Helleborus foetidus - population along the B 54 near Bad Schwalbach
Two young plants in a light mixed forest

The smelly hellebore ( Helleborus foetidus ) is a species of the buttercup family . Its name is derived from the fact that its leaves have an unpleasant scent; the Latin name foetidus (= stinking) also indicates this. The stinking hellebore is native to southern and central Europe and, like other species of the hellebore genus, is now a common garden plant.

description

The stinking hellebore, one of the half-shrubs, grows clumpy and is up to 60 centimeters high and 60 to 90 centimeters wide. The individual shoots form stems that grow for a few years until they reach flowering maturity, after the seeds mature they die. Before this, side shoots grow from dormant buds, which can bloom again the following year.

The flowers of this very early flowering species appear in autumn and open in late winter to early spring. The robust and frost-hardy plant is evergreen and produces clusters of cup-shaped, nodding, 5 cm wide, light green flowers that occasionally have a slightly reddish edge. The flowers each consist of five bracts and at their base are small, tubular nectar leaves. The nectar offered there is only available to bumblebees and fur bees .

The chromosome number is 2n = 32.

Occurrence

The south-western European plant reaches the eastern edge of its natural range in Central Europe.

The stinking hellebore is scattered but sociable in herbaceous oak and beech forests, in sloe bushes and on forest fringes. It prefers stony, at least somewhat calcareous, loose, humus-rich loam or loess soil, in areas where there is more humidity than drought and where extreme frosts are absent during winter. It is a weak species of the Quercion pubescentis association, but also occurs in associations of the Berberidion, Carpinion and Fagion associations.

Ecological pointer values

The ecological indicator values ​​according to Ellenberg for the stinking hellebore are:

  • L5 partial shade plant
  • T7 heat pointer
  • K2 oceanic
  • F4 dry to freshness pointer
  • R8 weak base to base pointer
  • N3 more common in low-nitrogen locations
  • S0 not salt bearing
  • Leb herbaceous chamaephyte, evergreen
  • Soz Quercion pubescenti (-petraeae)

ecology

The smelly hellebore is an evergreen subshrub ( Chamaephyte ). In the plant there are gradual transitions from foliage leaves to bracts and petals ( perigon ). It therefore serves as a prime example of the derivation of the petals from the leaves.

The hanging flowers are feminine "bluebells with sticky pollen ". They are pollinated by bees . Yeast cultures partially decompose the nectar. They generate temperatures in the flower that can be up to 6 ° C above the surrounding area and attract bumblebees to pollinate even at low temperatures.

The smelly hellebore prevents self-pollination by developing pre-female flowers. The flowers have a mechanism that is botanically referred to as the "scatter cone device". Their pollen rains down on the visiting insects and is thereby brought to other flowers.

From each pollinated flower three to five follicles develop , which are up to 3 cm long. These are firmly fused together in the lower third. When the follicles ripen, the fruit walls turn light brown and parchment-like and open along their belly seam. In the follicles, which hang down when ripe, the oval seeds are arranged in two rows. When they mature, they take on a blackish color and reach a length of up to 4 mm. The seeds are loosened from the follicles by gusts of wind and fall to the ground.

The stinking hellebore uses the so-called myrmecochory , as the seeds are spread by ants , as the spreading mechanism of the seeds . The seeds have a large, light-colored appendage called the elaiosome . This elaiosome contains glucose , fructose , fats and vitamin C and is therefore a valuable source of food for ants. Ants collect the seeds, transport them to the burrow, where they separate the actual seeds from the elaiosomes and then carry the seeds out of the burrow.

Toxicity

The plant is very poisonous due to the Helleborin. It is a mixture of saponins , which mainly consists of steroid saponins. It irritates the mucous membranes and encourages sneezing. Hellebrin was not found in recent studies. The petals contain ranunculoside.

In the past, the stinking hellebore was used as a medicinal plant in folk medicine , but is no longer in use because of undesirable side effects.

Use as a garden plant

Like the equally to the genus of Nieswurzen belonging Christmas rose is a popular garden plant. Among the species in this genus, it is the plant that best tolerates sun and drought. Plants established in the garden often self-seed.

literature

  • Oskar Sebald: Guide through nature. Wild plants of Central Europe . ADAC Verlag, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-87003-352-5 .
  • Angelika Lüttig, Juliane Kasten: Rose hip and Co. Flowers, fruits and spread of European plants . Fauna-Verlag, Nottuln 2003, ISBN 3-935980-90-6 .
  • Siegmund Seybold (Ed.): Schmeil-Fitschen. Interactive flora of Germany. Seeing - determining - knowing. The key to the flora . CD-ROM, version 2.0. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2004, ISBN 3-494-01368-3 .
  • Margot Spohn, Marianne Golte-Bechtle: What is blooming there? The encyclopedia: over 1000 flowering plants from Central Europe. Kosmos, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-440-10326-9 .
  • Lutz Roth , Max Daunderer , Kurt Kormann : Poison 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).
  • Dietrich Frohne: Medicinal Plant Lexicon . 7. completely rework. Edition. Scientific publishing house, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8047-1897-3 .
  • Jaakko Jalas, Juha Suominen: Atlas florae europaeae . Volume 8 (Nymphaeaceae to Ranunculaceae). Page 24, Helsinki 1989. ISBN 951-9108-07-6

Web links

Commons : Smelly Hellebore ( Helleborus foetidus )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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.  396 .
  2. ↑ 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 , p. 65 .
  3. ↑ a b Ruprecht Düll , Herfried Kutzelnigg : Pocket dictionary of plants in Germany. A botanical-ecological excursion companion to the most important species . 6th, completely revised edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2005, ISBN 3-494-01397-7 , p. 231-232 .
  4. ^ Carlos M. Herrera and María I. Pozo: Nectar yeasts warm the flowers of a winter blooming plant. In: Proc R Soc B. Online publication of February 10, 2010, doi: 10.1098 / rspb.2009.2252
  5. ↑ “Stinking hellebore attracts freezing bumblebees.” Spiegel.de, February 10, 2010